30 killed, 18 missing in China floods

Thirty people were killed and 18 others, including two students reported missing in landslides and floods in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region today, local authorities said.

Heavy rains caused landslides which killed eight persons in Yangchong Village, Cenxi City, and ten in Rongxian County, the region's Land and Resources Department said.

A total of 30 bodies were recovered after landslides and flash floods struck five counties in Guanxi region.

At least 18 persons, including two farmers from Yangchong Village and 16 from Rongxian County, are missing, state-run news agency Xinhua said, adding rescuers are searching for the missing. "Many houses in Rongxian County's villages of Liuwang, Chen and Longtou were buried in the landslide," the department's official Wang Hai said.

The rainstorms had caused floods in 12 counties of six cities across Guangxi, damaging properties of more than 1.17 million people.

It has damaged around 2,273 homes and 78,000 hectares of crops, Guangxi's Civil Affairs Department said. Two students were missing after a severe storm led to flooding in schools in the same district.

The two were from Xingbin District in Laibin City, a city government spokesman said. However, he did not reveal the names of the students or their school. Local government officials and residents were still searching for them, he added. Laibin City was battered by heavy rain for the past two days.

The City Centre, the worst-hit by the rainstorm, received 439 mm of rainfall. Sixty-five schools were flooded in total. At the city's Experimental High School, 1,050 students and teachers were stranded for hours before they were yesterday evacuated by the fire service.

"I woke up at 3 am and saw the room was flooded," said Wei Yanting, a girl who lived in a first-floor dormitory. "We all climbed onto the top bunk beds and sat there watching the water cover the lower ones."

Firemen evacuated the students with yachts and rowboats in the waist-deep water. All were evacuated by 5 pm yesterday.

The flood water in Laibin's City Centre was still knee-deep today, and flooded vehicles were seen on every street. City authorities said it would take another day to drain the water.