Death toll from storms, landslides rises to 28

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-12 12:01

KUNMING -- Severe rainstorms have caused flash floods and landslides that killed at least 28 people and left eight missing in southwest China, the Yunnan provincial government said on Tuesday.

The civil affairs bureau estimated that disasters triggered by tropical storm Kammuri from Thursday to Monday affected about 1 million people in Yunnan and forced 11,200 people to evacuate their homes.

Kammuri, the third tropical storm to hit China this year, landed in the southern province of Guangdong on Wednesday, and swept across the Beibu Gulf to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region before moving west to Yunnan.

About 2,700 homes in Yunnan were destroyed and 13,000 were damaged, with officials estimating losses at 549 million yuan ($80 million ), mostly from damaged crops, the bureau said.

In one of the worst-hit areas, Maguan county in Yunnan's Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Prefecture, a landslide on Saturday left nine people dead, two missing and five injured after they were swept up in a 300-meter landslide.

Heavy downpours also damaged sections of the National Highway 213 in Daguan County with cave-ins and landslides disrupting traffic.