Floods caused by a rainstorm that hit northwest China's Shaanxi Province have claimed 17 lives with 33 others missing, an official with the provincial headquarters of flood control said on Wednesday.

The rainstorms that ravaged Ankang in the southeast of Shaanxi on Monday evening and Tuesday morning have caused flooding in seven rivers, along with several landslides and mud-rock flows, the official said.

About 175,000 people were affected. The rainstorms also destroyed crops on 720 hectares of farmland and toppled down 5,450 houses. A highway was closed with 15 cave-ins.

Direct economic loss stood at 163 million yuan (US$21.5 million), said the flood control official.

In southwest China's Guizhou Province, eight coal miners were killed, two injured and other four missing after flood water rushed into a coal mine, the provincial administration for work safety supervision said Wednesday.

Twenty miners were working underground at the Longhua colliery in Qianxi County at 6:10 PM Tuesday when the flooding occurred. Six escaped and 14 were trapped.

The rescuers managed to save two coal miners by 8:30 AM Wednesday, while eight were confirmed dead, including the colliery director and deputy director. And four remain missing.

Longhua, a township-owned high-gas coal mine with annual designed output capability of 60,000 tons, is undergoing technology renovation to the goal of producing 300,000 tons of coal annually.

The rescuing work is under way, together with the probe into the accident, the provincial administration for work safety supervision said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)