BEIJING, May 18 (Reuters) – Rescuers were searching on Monday for six people missing after a pickup truck carrying 15 passengers fell into a flooded river in China’s southwestern region of Guangxi amid heavy rain, killing four, state broadcaster CCTV said.
More downpours are expected after heavy rain drenched central and eastern China on the weekend, lashing provinces such as Jiangxi and Hunan, weather authorities said.
In a separate incident on Monday, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake killed two people and forced more than 7,000 in Guangxi’s city of Liuzhou to evacuate as search and rescue operations continued and authorities warned of transport disruptions.
Authorities said that they have allocated 10,000 items of relief supplies for Guangxi’s earthquake and flood relief.
The rains would gradually move eastward and southward across China over the next three days, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said.
It warned of the worsening risk of mountain torrents, flooding in small and medium-sized rivers and urban waterlogging, among other threats.
The city of Jingzhou in the central province of Hubei declared measures to suspend work and business activities as part of its emergency response to flooding.
Daily rainfall in Yichang, also in Hubei, broke a 36-year record over the weekend, the Hubei Daily said. Authorities shut tourist sites and ordered schools to suspend outdoor classes.
(Reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong, Laurie Chen in Beijing and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Clarence Fernandez)
