Natural disasters have claimed more than 1,000 lives around China this year, with 764 people drowned and 191 others missing in severe floods alone, China Youth Daily reports on Friday.

More than 3.72 million people have been evacuated to safer places and some 650,000 houses tumbled because of floods, according to the report.

With the main flooding season setting in from July to September, regions including the valleys of the Yangtze and Liaohe rivers, the middle reaches of the Yellow River and part of the Haihe River area are likely to incur more floods, Wang Zhenyao, director of the Disaster Relief Department under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, was quoted as saying.

Since the beginning of July, floods triggered by continuous torrential rains have been pelting several parts of China, including Sichuan, Shaanxi, Anhui and Jilin provinces in southwestern, eastern, and northeastern China and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south.

(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2005)