BEIJING - Floods have left 57 people dead and 29 others missing in three Chinese provinces that have been hit by heavy rains since September 1, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement on Monday.

More than 12 million people have been affected by the latest round of heavy rains, while strong flooding has forced the evacuations of more than 1.21 million people in Henan, Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, according to the ministry.

Direct economic losses have totaled 17.27 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), the ministry said.

More than 650,000 hectares of crops have been affected by heavy rains and flooding, with 50,800 hectares destroyed. Floods have also toppled 129,000 houses across the three provinces, according to the ministry.

In an effort to aid disaster relief work, the ministry has sent 5,000 tents, 20,000 units of cotton quilts and 20,000 units of cotton-padded clothes to Shaanxi and allocated thousands of tents and quilts to Sichuan as of Monday.

Since Saturday, the ministry has also initiated level-4 emergency response for three consecutive days and sent special work teams to the three provinces to gauge flood damage and direct disaster relief operations.