The tail end of Typhoon Gaemi has hit China and North Korea with torrential rain, floods and mudslides, with more than 20 people reported to have died.
Reports early on Tuesday said that seven people had been added to the casualty list from the previous day, when a mudslide killed at least 15 people. The update brings the total number reported killed since Sunday to 22.
Xinhua News Agency reported that four bodies had been found in Zixing city. State broadcaster CCTV reported that the bodies of three other missing people were found in a village nearby.
Heavy rains have been falling on Hunan for days as Tropical Storm Gaemi moved inland after making landfall at typhoon strength in the neighbouring Fujian province on the Chinese coast. The storm hit Taiwan hard last week.
All of the deaths in China have been recorded in Hunan province. Three more people were reported to be missing on Tuesday.
Xinhua added that the rains have damaged close to 1,000 homes, prompted the evacuation of more than 11,000 people, and caused 1,345 road collapses in Zixing. Some areas of the city experienced record rainfall, with some areas receiving 645mm (25 inches) in just 24 hours.
At the same time, elsewhere in the province, nearly 4,000 residents were evacuated due to a dam breach.
The floods come after a landslide on Sunday destroyed a guesthouse in Hunan, killing 15 people.
China is experiencing a summer of extreme weather. Heavy rains are affecting swaths of the country while other regions endure intense heatwaves.
On Monday, China’s National Meteorological Centre issued an orange alert, the second-highest level, for rainstorms across much of the country’s south, southwest, and centre, as well as Beijing, Hebei province, and Tianjin in the north.
The deluge has seen major dams breached, leading to the flooding of swaths of agricultural land. CCTV reported that the Ministry of Finance has earmarked funds of 238 million yuan ($33m) for disaster prevention and agricultural aid.
Weather experts blame the devastating rains on a combination of the southwest monsoon and Gaemi.
The combination has also seen storms in northeastern China and North Korea, with the rainfall increasing levels in the Yalu River, which divides the two countries. Serious flooding has been reported in the Chinese border city of Dandong and on the North Korean side.
