The Kabul Tribune (KT) — Reuters reported that at least 21 people have been killed as torrential rains continued to lash southern and central China, triggering widespread flooding that has disrupted daily life and infrastructure.
Authorities said the heavy rainfall, which persisted on Tuesday, forced the closure of schools and businesses, while also disrupting transportation and power supplies across multiple regions.
China’s weather agency warned that provinces including Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan face a high risk of rain-related disasters such as landslides, flash floods and severe urban flooding.
Officials said 150 million yuan (about $22 million) has been allocated for disaster relief, and emergency response measures have been activated in several affected areas.
In the central city of Jingzhou in Hubei province, residents were seen wading through knee-deep water, with images shared on the Chinese platform Douyin showing fish swimming through flooded streets and vehicles nearly submerged.
According to state broadcaster China Central Television, 10 people were killed after a pickup truck carrying 15 farm workers fell into a flooded river in Guangxi amid heavy rain.
In separate incidents, four people were killed in Guizhou province, four others in Hunan province, and three more in a low-lying village in Hubei province. Several people remain missing.
State media reported that schools, businesses and transport services have been suspended in affected areas, while authorities are relocating residents in parts of Hubei and Hunan.
Meteorologists said the unusually large rainfall area — stretching over 1,000 kilometers — was caused by the convergence of moisture from the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, combined with a slow-moving weather system that intensified rainfall accumulation.
China’s National Meteorological Centre warned that severe weather conditions are expected to shift east and south over the next two days, with the heaviest rainfall forecast along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River starting Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a landslide in Hainan province caused a mountainside to collapse onto a highway in Lingshui, forcing the closure of several major roads.
Separately, authorities in Guangxi established 99 temporary shelters for more than 4,000 residents and relocated around 7,000 people following a magnitude 5.2 earthquake that struck the region on Monday.
