Mudslides kill 5, injure 7 in China

GUIYANG - Five people died and another seven were injured in rainstorm-triggered mudslides in China's Guizhou and Hunan provinces on Saturday, local authorities said Sunday.

From 11 pm Saturday to early Sunday morning, heavy downpours hit Zhouxi township in Kaili, a city in Southwest China's Guizhou province,triggering mudslides, according to the city's publicity department.

As of 1 pm Sunday, three residents of Zhouxi had been found dead and seven injured people had been sent to hospital. At least 201 houses in Zhouxi have been damaged.

Local governments have relocated residents from low-lying areas at risk for flash floods and other geological disasters.

Statistics released by the Guizhou provincial meteorological station show that over 1,500 townships of 77 counties and cities in the province have been battered by this round of rainstorms, which started from 8 pm Saturday.

In central China's Hunan province, rainstorms left two people dead and another two missing as of Sunday afternoon, according to the provincial flood control headquarters.

Rainstorm-triggered floods have also posed safety risks for some minor reservoirs in Hunan.

Severe hailstorms also hit Tongliao, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, destroying over 10,000 mu (about 666.7 hectares) of farmland.

China's national observatory on Saturday issued a blue alert for rainstorms expected to hit the country's southern and northeastern regions with occasional thunderstorms and hailstorms.

The national observatory uses a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red being the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.