Fourteen people have died in landslides or floods triggered by continuous downpours since July 1 in southwest China's Sichuan Province, local authorities said on Saturday.

Floods killed two people and left another missing in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, on Thursday and Friday. All three were of the Yi nationality, the authorities said.

A search was under way for the missing.

The accident happened in a mountainous area where downpours can easily drive up the water level of streams and cause floods, said Xie Li, director of the prefectural emergency response office.

Another accident occurred in Yibin City, where a landslide buried three members of a family, two women and one man, on Friday morning.

A 100-person rescue team was sent to the site but the three were found dead.

Three waves of downpours drenched Sichuan from July 1 to 5, affecting 217,000 people in 11 counties and cities.

The rain triggered mud-rock flows in the worst-hit Zhaojue County, where cumulative rain stood at 223.1 millimeters, toppling a farmer's house where six people died and another person was injured.

Three other deaths were reported in similar incidents. Local officials didn't give further details.

The death toll could rise further, with rescuers still trying to extricate six villagers from debris in Xide County, where five households were buried in a landslide. Seventeen other people were rescued earlier.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2008)