The Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Wednesday that so far this year, natural disasters have killed 659 persons and caused economic losses of 39.26 billion yuan (US$ 4.75 billion) in China.

The ministry said 17.836 million hectares of crops had suffered natural disasters and a total of 1.569 million hectares of arable land had reaped nothing. About 388,000 houses collapsed during the disasters and 2.447 million houses were destroyed.

As a result, a total of 1.285 million people had been relocated from their homes, said the ministry, describing the country's natural disasters as mainly floods, drought, wind, hail, earthquakes, heavy snow, freezing, landslides and mud-rock flows.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2004)