Weeks of heavy rain show no let-up in China

BEIJING, July 19 (Reuters) Weeks of heavy rain show no sign of let-up in China where another round of storms hit an eastern city, killing 22 people and injuring 142, Chinese media reported today.

Large swathes of China have been hit by severe flooding this summer, killing more than 400 people so far.

The most recent deaths were in Jinan, the capital of coastal Shandong province, which received a record of 180 mm (7 ins) of rain within three hours on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency said.

Further rain was also expected to hit the southwestern province of Sichuan where 54 people have died since the beginning of July and 22 were missing, Xinhua said.

The rains were forecast to hit the northeastern part of the province and spread to the south, it said, citing the provincial weather bureau.

''The task for Sichuan to prevent flooding is very heavy -- it could happen any time,'' Sichuan provincial authorities were quoted as saying.

In the nearby landlocked city of Chongqing, which has received the heaviest rain since records began in 1892, more than 30 people had died and the city and its suburbs had become ''isolated islands'' as streets flooded, Chinese media said.

The Huai River, which runs through the central province of Henan and the eastern province of Anhui and Jiangsu, has been overflowing for the past 10 days, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to leave their homes and more heavy rain was forecast to hit the region, state television said.

Floods have also caused a 2-billion-strong plague of rats fleeing rising waters in Dongting Lake in Hunan province. The rodents have been blamed for destroying 1.6 million hectares (6,200 sq miles) of cropland and have stoked fears of disease.

Media reports have said a lack of snakes, a popular dish in the south, and owls, used in traditional Chinese medicine, was held partly responsible.

The Hunan government denied the reports, saying the Dongting Lake area was not an ideal habitat for snakes, Xinhua said.

''The top enemy of the rats are hawks that spend winter in the wetlands around the lake but fly away in spring,'' a forestry expert was quoted as saying.

The local government had contained the rat threats and taken effective measures to prevent epidemics, it added.

REUTERS GT VV1017