JOIN USAt least 50 people have died and 42 others are missing following floods triggered by strong rainfall which has been battering many parts of China for the last 10 days, according to the ministry of civil affairs.
Over 10 million people were affected till Friday morning by downpours in 399 counties in Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou, with about 1.25 million in urgent need of aid, reported China Daily citing the ministry.
Torrential rain also toppled 34,000 houses, damaged another 89,000 houses and rendered 738,000 hectares of crops unharvestable in these regions, resulting in direct economic losses worth over 10 billion yuan (about $1.6 billion).
Quake hits Xinjiang
A powerful 6.6-magnitude quake on Saturday jolted northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, including the provincial capital Urumqi, injuring 34 people and causing wide spread damage besides trapping 120 people in a landslide.
The earthquake, which hit a mountainous area along the border of Hejing and Xinyuan counties at 0507, toppled 104 houses and damaged 4,735 others, the China Earthquake Networks Centre said.
The epicenter was found to be in a mountainous area along the border of Hejing and Xinyuan counties, according to CENC.
A large number of residential houses were toppled or damaged in Xinyuan County, and hundreds of cattle were killed after their sheds collapsed, a statement from the government of Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, which administers Xinyuan said.
The quake also triggered landslides and caused cave-ins on several national and regional highways in Xinjiang, bringing traffic to a halt. A landslide on National Highway 217 has trapped 120 people.