More typhoons from the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea will strike China this year, the China Meteorological Administration reported.

Police help a stalled bus in the rain-flooded street in Huangshan City, Anhui Province when the city was hit by heavy rains yesterday. The city raised the red alert signal for rainstorm after having accumulated precipitations of 240 millimeters yesterday.

China's main flood season usually lasts from June to August. Eight typhoons had a devastating impact on China last year and a flood drowned 105 primary school students in Shalan Town in Ning'an in Heilongjiang Province.

According to the forecast, the rain belt will remain mainly in the areas between the southern parts of north China and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest river. The rainfall will be well above average in most parts of south and southwest China and middle and western parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

China also reported about 22.5 million hectares of drought areas including 4.9 million hectares of farmland in Gansu, Hebei, Yunnan, Sichuan and Guangxi, said CMA figures updated on April 28.

The task of fighting against floods and relieving droughts is particularly severe this year, said Qin Dahe, director of the CMA.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2006)