By Mahmut Atanur
BEIJING (AA) – More than 128 people have been killed in heavy rains in the past five days across China.
State news agency Xinhua reported the Ministry of Civil Affairs as saying Tuesday that 42 other people remained missing in 11 Chinese provincial regions, mostly along the Yangtze River.
The ministry added that continuous rainfall had collapsed 41,000 houses, forced the evacuation of more than 1.34 million people and destroyed 295,200 hectares of crops.
It reported nearly 600,000 people as in urgent need of basic living assistance, with 23.33 million threatened by floods.
Total economic losses are estimated at 38.16 billion yuan ($5.73 billion).
