Heavy rain batters central, south China

Heavy rain in central and south China killed at least six people and left tens of thousands of people affected and much cropland damaged.

Rain-triggered floods killed three workers who were working at around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday in a sewage pipe near a bus station in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, local authorities said, adding that the bodies of the workers were retrieved at around 10:40 p.m.

Rain started to lash 24 cities and counties in Hunan on Tuesday, killing three people in landslides Tuesday, affecting 165,000 people, toppling 300 houses, forcing the relocation of 1,600 people and damaging 14,000 hectares of crops, the provincial government said.

In Changsha, capital of Hunan, rainstorms inundated roads and houses in low-lying areas and crippled traffic on Wednesday night.

Rainstorms were forecast for Wednesday night and Thursday, while they will abate on Friday, meteorologists said. The weather is expected to clear up over the weekend.

In neighboring Guangdong Province, rainstorms have battered the west of the province and the Pearl River Delta region over the past two days, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said.

Yangchun City was flooded. As of 9 p.m. Wednesday, more than 26,000 people had been affected by the rain-triggered floods.

A five-year-old girl remained missing after she was washed away by flooding in Zhuhai City, the headquarters said. Search and rescue work is still under way.

It is expected that more storms will hit the west part of Guangdong as well as the Pearl River Delta region in the coming two days, the provincial meteorological department said.

Meanwhile, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province were also battered by rainstorms in the past two days.

A total of 32,000 people from eight counties or districts have been affected, 360 houses toppled, and 400 hectares of crops damaged in the storms in Guizhou, the provincial government said.