Since late May, continuous rainstorms began hitting central, south and southwest provinces, including Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Sichuan, affecting about 14 million people.

Rain-triggered mud slides and floods had killed 76 people by Tuesday afternoon, according to MCA, which has not provided an update since then.

Thousands of people have been evacuated to safer places and efforts to rebuild their homes have begun, the spokesman said.

The disasters have caused overall economic losses of more than 4.73 billion yuan (about 606 million U.S. dollars).