People watch a pavilion in the flood in Lingyun County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 12, 2008. Heavy rains pounded China's southern and eastern regions for the past few days, and affected millions of people. [Xinhua]

The water level at the Wuzhou section of the Xijiang River surpassed the warning level of 18.5 m on Friday morning, and the level continued to rise by 0.1 m per hour. It was expected to reach 22 m by 8 a.m. Saturday.

Wuzhou, a city near Guangxi's border with Guangdong Province, was ravaged by the worst flooding in 100 years in 2005.

The rain was expected to move eastward and weaken since Friday afternoon.

In neighboring Hunan, the worst-hit province in the severe winter this year, more than 50,000 people were evacuated in Yongzhou City as rain hit several counties. Jianghua County, where water depths reached 5 m, started the first class response on Friday.

Flood-prevention activities were undertaken in cities along the Xiangjiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, as its water level would surpass the warning level in the coming days, according to a flood prevention conference on Friday.

Losses in Anhui were estimated at nearly 1 billion yuan as the rain affected more than 930,000 people and more than 70,000 hectares of crops.

The provincial department of civil affairs started to send tents to the most seriously affected counties of Xiuning and Shexian.

In eastern Jiangxi Province, a rainstorm-triggered landslide killed a woman in Shangyou County. Rainstorms hit 61 counties in the province, with Chongyi County Hydrological Station recording the largest 24-hour rainfall total of 191 mm.

A storm in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, killed six on Friday, as bad weather continued to rage in the region. Four died after their houses collapsed in the morning while a couple selling fruit were electrocuted, officials said.