CHINA: Torrential rains and flash floods have ravaged large tracts of Asia this monsoon season, leaving hundreds dead and millions displaced, with China suffering some of the worst effects.
Chinese state media confirmed yesterday that almost 250 people have been killed in a fortnight of torrential rains across the country, raising the national flood death toll this year to around 1,000.
This year's monsoon season has been just as fierce across other parts of Asia, with more than 800 people dying and millions being displaced from floods and landslides in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
In south-east Asia, flash floods ripped through mountainous areas of northern Vietnam this week, killing four, submerging hundreds of homes and destroying crops.
Thailand was also struck and officials in the north-western province of Tak said yesterday that two Myanmar nationals were killed as the Moei river, which divides Thailand and Myanmar, rose to dangerous levels.
The Philippines has also been hit by several typhoons this year, killing dozens.
In China, authorities have struggled to deal with the bad weather that's plagued the country since June and some government officials have said this summer's flooding could eventually become almost as bad as in 1998, when about 4,000 people died.
More bodies were discovered across the country this weekend as new disasters struck and officials warned of more rain to come.
"The situation is very, very bad," Red Cross official Ms France Hurtuise told AFP in Beijing by telephone from mountainous Hunan.