China natural disasters kill 1,761 Jan.-Sept.

Natural disasters across China have claimed 1,761 lives and left 434 people missing in the first three quarters of this year, according to official figures released on Friday.

These disasters affected more than 376 million people and forced 10.24 million to resettle, said the statement jointly released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Commission for Disaster Reduction.

About 856,000 houses were razed and another 7.4 million were damaged to varying degrees, with 3.25 million hectares of farmland destroyed, by the disasters, which also caused direct economic losses worth some 517 billion yuan (84.5 billion US dollars) during the period.

Inducing more severe damage compared with the same period last year, these disasters mainly involved floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons, heavy snow and fog, the statement added.