(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-29 22:08

BEIJING, July 29 - Fierce storms and hail have killed 11 people in central and eastern China, adding to the hundreds killed this summer in floods, landslides and other natural disasters, according to state media.

Ten deaths occurred in central Hubei province, where lashing rains and hail have accompanied swollen waters along the Yangtze River, the Xinhua news agency reported late on Saturday.

In the Huangpi district of Wuhan, the provincial capital, seven people were killed and 1,600 had to abandon their homes, the report said. Across Hubei, the violent weather injured 223 residents, the China news service reported.

A separate hail storm in the eastern province of Anhui on Saturday killed one person and injured three, Xinhua reported on Sunday.

Weeks of rain along the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze, China's biggest river, have threatened Wuhan with dangerously high waters, state media said.

More than 500 people have already died nationwide in floods and landslides this summer, underscoring the vulnerability of the huge rural population to natural disasters.

Authorities in Hubei have mobilised tens of thousands of people to monitor the embankments of the swollen Han River, a major tributary of the Yangtze.

Along the Huai River in eastern China, flood waters remain dangerously high but have begun to retreat after inundating villages.

But forecasters said torrential rains were likely to hit parts of Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces in the west in coming days.

"There is the strong possibility of landslides, mudslides and other geological disasters," the national weather authority said, according to Xinhua.

Other parts of China are suffering meteorological misery of different kinds.

The northeast is suffering drought and the coastal east, including Shanghai, is forecast to endure more days of sweltering heat reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).