Natural disasters in China kill 204 people in July

Natural disasters such as floods, gales and hailstorms, lightening strikes and droughts left 204 people dead and 25 missing in China in July, according to a government report published on Saturday. It also inflicted a direct economic loss os USD6.75 billion. The natural disaster also led to the collapse of 111,000 buildings and forced 809,000 people to evacuate from their homes, Chinese Xinhua news agency cited the report posted on the Ministry of Civil Affairs website. A total of 6.96 million hectares of crops were affected by disasters, and 590,000 hectares went unharvested, the report said. Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as well as Shandong, Sichuan and Shannxi provinces were the hardest-hit by floods and landslides. And sudden rainstorms caused severe floods of urban areas that brought traffic to a standstill. The evaluation report was jointly made by the Ministries of Civil Affairs, Agriculture, Health, Agriculture, Railways, Transport as well as bureaus of earthquake, forest and China''s Red Cross Society.