Four people were killed and eight others are missing in flash floods and mud-rock flows inflicted by rainstorms that hit northwest China's Shaanxi Province, said sources with the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters on Friday.

 

At least 311 houses collapsed, 684.2 hectares of crops were spoiled and 164 roads were cut off in the torrential rains that started in the south of Shaanxi on Wednesday.

 

The rains severed water and power supply and cut the No. 108 national highway in the worst-hit Foping County 212 kilometers from provincial capital Xi'an. The downpours also forced evacuation of more than 800 people in the nearby Ningshan County, according to local sources.

 

Floods have claimed 1,138 lives in China so far this year, Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei told a news conference Tuesday. An additional 210 people were missing.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2007)