Fierce hailstorms and floods have left one person dead, about 27,000 people affected and more than 90,000 hectares of crops destroyed in parts of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, local authorities said Wednesday.

The storms hit Yining County, Xibe Autonomous County of Qapqal, Nilka County, Gongliu County and Kuytun City, all in the Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili on Sunday and Monday, triggering direct economic losses of more than 64 million yuan (US$8 million), most in agriculture, a spokesman with the Ili prefecture government said.

More than 2,700 houses were damaged or destroyed and150 head of livestock were killed, the spokesman said.

In Yining, which suffered most, the biggest hailstones measured four centimeters in diameter and left a layer up to 15 centimeters thick on the ground within 15 minutes, the spokesman said.

The local government is carrying out relief work in these areas by providing farmers with new seed or telling them to plant other crops in a bid to reduce the impact, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2007)