Six people are missing and 27 are injured after a rainstorm caused a mudflow that hit a town in southwest China's Yunnan Province, a local government official said on Thursday.

The mudflow occurred at around 3 a.m. on Wednesday after a two-hour downpour in Manhao Town, Gejiu City, said Xu Tao, of the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture land and resources department.

Xu said 105 millimeters of rain fell from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m..

Forty homes were destroyed and two people were seriously injured. The direct economic losses had surpassed 20 million yuan (2.9 million U.S. dollars).

Xu said some local residents had been evacuated and the homeless had been accommodated in school classrooms.

A working team dispatched by the provincial government had arrived at the town to help with disaster relief.

A section of the national highway section blocked by the mudflow in Manhao had reopened.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2008)