Rainstorms have been thrashing southwest China's Sichuan Province for four days, claiming at least 15 lives and leaving seven missing, according to the Sichuan disaster relief center.

The provincial meteorology center announced that 21 counties and cities had reported over 50 millimeters of rainfall by Wednesday night, with seven of those logging more than 100 millimeters.

The continuous rain has caused flooding and landslides across the province.

Yibin City's Xingwen County is the hardest hit so far. Six were killed when they were buried under a landslide as they slept Tuesday night. Five others were injured, three of them seriously, and seven remain missing.

Torrential rains and flooding were responsible for nearly 2,000 deaths in China in the first nine months of 2003, and this year could prove to be equally disastrous.

The flood season has officially begun, and safety problems have been reported at some 30,000 reservoirs nationwide.

(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2004)