At least 205 persons have died and 30 million people have been affected by heavy rain and severe flooding in five provincial areas of China since early June, civil affairs officials said Wednesday.

Officials with the Ministry of Civil Affairs say the five affected provincial areas are Shaanxi Province in northwest China, Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality and Guizhou Province in southwest China, and Hubei Province in central China.

In Shaanxi, heavy rainfall from June 8 to 10 led to severe flooding, killing 152 people and affecting 5.1 million others. About 110,000 people in Shaanxi have been evacuated from their homes to safer areas.

The severe flooding has also damaged Shaanxi's infrastructure, including bridges, telecommunications and power transmission facilities.

Train travel on one of the four major railway lines, the Longhai Railway, which links Jiangsu province in east China to Gansu province in northwest China, was disrupted when the Bahe Railway Bridge collapsed due to flooding.

Heavy rain also led to flooding, and land, mud and rock slides in 52 counties and cities in Sichuan province, southwest China. A total of 210,000 people were evacuated.

The ministry has sent task forces to Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces to assess the situation and to offer emergency aid to victims of the flooding. The aid includes 8 million yuan in relief funds to Shaanxi and 1,100 flood relief tents for the two provinces.

The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education are also to provide money, medicine and supplies to Shaanxi and other disaster-hit provinces.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2002)