China summer storm death toll approaches 700

BEIJING, July 30 (Reuters) The death toll from floods, lightning and mud and rock slides across China this summer has risen to nearly 700 after fierce storms killed 17 people over the weekend, state media said today.

Ten deaths occurred in the central province of Hubei, where rain and hail have added to swollen waters along the country's longest river, the Yangtze, and its main tributary, the Han.

In the northwestern province of Shaanxi, five died in floods caused by heavy rain that cut off roads and telecommunications around Shangluo, Xinhua news agency said.

A hail storm on Saturday hit parts of the eastern Anhui province, where millions of residents have been grappling with the threat of the swollen Huai River for the past month, killing one person and injuring three, Xinhua said.

Flood waters on the Huai have begun to retreat, but 268,000 people, including 8,000 troops, remained stationed along its embankments to prevent any breaches, it added.

One person died in a lightning strike in weekend storms in the flood-battered southwestern province of Sichuan, Xinhua said.

Floods have affected 119 million people, or nearly one tenth of China's 1.3 billion population, and caused economic losses of 7 billion dollars, Xinhua said.

Farmers have borne the brunt of the damage and casualties, underscoring the vulnerability of the huge rural population to natural disasters.

Forecasters said torrential rain was likely to hit parts of the southwestern provinces Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan as well as Hubei in the coming days. Storms could also soak the country's dry north today.

Other parts of China are suffering meteorological misery of different kinds.

More than 1 million people faced shortages of drinking water in several southern provinces as a heatwave compounded weeks of drought.

Reuters BJR SBA VP0730