Guizhou Province has battened down the hatches since Sunday with non-stop hailstorms and gale-force winds lashing it, killing three and injuring 200.

 

The province has 48,000 hectares of crops destroyed while 830 houses have been wrecked and over 25,000 people evacuated, the local civil affairs bureau reported on Wednesday.

 

Estimated losses are put as high as 128 million yuan (US$17 million), of which 124 million yuan are deemed to be agricultural losses.

 

In southern China's Guangdong Province, heavy rain on Monday and Tuesday triggered landslides which killed four and sparked the evacuation of 20,000 people.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2007)