Death toll rises to 147

Strong storms have collapsed reservoirs, overflowed rivers, caused landslides and power outages, and damaged highways, while water levels have surged passed safe levels in dozens of rivers, including the Pearl River in the heart of China's manufacturing region. -- PHOTO: AFP

BEIJING - THE death toll from torrential downpours battering China for the past week has risen to 147, as the country braced itself for more heavy rain.

Floods and landslides triggered by the summer deluge have left a further 93 people missing, while more than a million have been evacuated, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said yesterday on its website.

Earlier state media reports said more than 1.4 million people living on river banks and in low-lying areas had been forced to flee their homes.

The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters released even more alarming numbers yesterday, saying that the floods have severely affected more than 10 million people in south China's nine provinces, including Fujian, Jiangxi and Hunan.

The summer deluge has left a trail of devastation across great swathes of China's south and south-east.

The rains, which began on June 13, are ravaging a region that just months ago was coping with a severe drought. -- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, XINHUA, ASSOCIATED PRESS, NEW YORK TIMES