At least nine people were killed and another is missing in torrential rains in the Pearl River Delta areas in south China's Guangdong Province over the weekend.

The cities of Shenzhen and Dongguan were the hardest hit by the downpours that have caused landslides and disrupted traffic, according to sources with the Guangdong Provincial Anti-flooding Headquarters yesterday.

In Shenzhen, eight people were killed when at least 30 landslides wrecked homes in and around the city.

The Shenzhen Reservoir started to overflow at noon on Saturday.

Many streets in the busy downtown areas were flooded, bringing traffic to a standstill as cars and buses were stranded in water.

The city raised the "black signal", an indication of storms and flooding, the highest flood warning signal, on Saturday afternoon.

More than 60 trains operating between Shenzhen and Guangzhou, were delayed on Saturday and early yesterday when railway tracks in the Buji section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Railway were damaged by mountain torrents, affecting more than 22,000 passengers.

Railway operations returned to normal yesterday afternoon.

In Dongguan, at least 10 towns were flooded, resulting in widespread damage, and leaving one person dead.

Many local factories and residential districts were also flooded, as rainfall reached 366 millimeters on Saturday, the highest in the city for 24 years.

The Guangdong Provincial Observatory has warned that the torrential rains will continue for most of this week.

The heavy rains have resulted in a 25 percent price hike for aquatic products and vegetables in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhuhai and other major cities in the Pearl River Delta.

In related news, six people were killed and much economic loss was sustained as rains pounded Shaanxi Province, northwest China.

"Since August 14, 98 out of Shaanxi's 108 cities and counties have been hit by continuous heavy rain and more than 200,000 people have fallen victim to floods, landslides and mud-rock flows caused by the rain," Cheng Zhigong, an official with the Shaanxi Provincial Anti-flood Office, said.

According to Cheng, floods caused by continuous heavy rain have seriously affected 34 townships in southern Shaanxi. More than 600 houses and some 3,400 hectares of farmland have been destroyed and nearly 100 roads cut off, with a total estimated economic loss of 100 million yuan (US$12.3 million).

"Three people were killed and three were reported missing in Zhenping and Pingli counties in southern Shaanxi," the official said.

Three people also died in central Shaanxi bringing the death toll in the province to six, Cheng told China Daily.

Zhu Xinqian, a 47-year-old farmer living in Banchang village in Lantian, a mountainous county in central Shaanxi, lost his wife and son in a landslide early Friday morning.

"I went to tend to my land on the mountain that night to drive away wild boars that might destroy my crops. The landslide hit my house just as I arrived back home," the farmer said.

"Zhu was just in front of his house when the landslide came down, he injured his leg. I don't know how he managed to crawl the more than 100 meters to my house for help," said Wang Cunmin, a neighbor who tried in vain to help Zhu to rescue his wife and son.

Local civil administration departments have been making efforts to rescue those left stranded by the conditions and a number of special rescue teams with specialist equipment have been sent to the disaster-hit regions, said Wang Shousen, vice governor of Shaanxi in charge of the anti-disaster work.

Weather forecasts predict that the rains should end tomorrow.

(China Daily August 22, 2005)