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NANCHANG, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Eleven more deaths have been reported after heavy rain across China since the weekend, local authorities said Tuesday.
In east China's Jiangxi Province, six people died, according to the provincial civil affairs department. Among them, two drowned in swollen rivers, while four were killed by lightening.
Three people remain missing, 105,700 hectares of crops were ruined, 969 houses destroyed and direct economic losses have been estimated in the region of 2.16 billion yuan (about 328.5 million U.S. dollars).
About 199,000 people have been displaced, including about 13,000 from Guxiandu, Poyang County where a river breached its banks on Monday evening. More than 400 armed police plan to mend a 100-meter gap in the river defenses on Wednesday. "We're waiting because the water level remains high," said a police spokesman.
A Xinhua reporter visited a flooded village in a rescue boat and saw the water two to three meters deep with the road to the village cut off. Many villagers were trapped on upper floors. Rescuers distributed food and water to them and took the elderly and children to safe places.
In Zhangjialing Village, 70 percent of homes were flooded in water up to four meters deep. Rescuers are trying to help the villagers as water levels continue to rise.
In Xingwen County, southwest China's Sichuan province, five more bodies were found at a railway construction site, bringing the death toll from landslides in the county to seven.
Following heavy rain, a landslide occurred around 3 a.m. Sunday that destroyed workers' dormitories. Three people were hospitalized, they remain under observation but are in a stable condition.
A spokesperson with the Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said the storms since the weekend had taken tributaries at the upper and middle reaches of the river to their highest level in decades.
Vice Premier Wang Yang called for intensified efforts to prevent flood and mitigate losses from floods on Saturday.
Affected by El Nino, China would face very complicated weather conditions and there is a relatively high possibility of basin-wide floods occurring this year, Wang warned.
