At least 10 people were injured, including two seriously, when a tornado struck the cities of Shaoguan and Nanxiong in northern Guangdong Province, beginning on Saturday.

The Guangdong tornado was followed by hailstones with a diameter of up to 2 centimeters. It destroyed and damaged many houses in the counties and townships in the two cities.

The natural disaster in Guangdong caused direct economic losses worth more than 150 million yuan (US$18 million). Electricity and water supplies were cut off and telecommunication services were also suspended in some counties and townships in Shaoguan and Nanxiong.

More than 20,000 local residents were affected by the disaster in the tornado-hit cities and counties in Guangdong. More than 12,000 houses and many factories and workshops were destroyed or damaged.

In Dongyuan County, which is administered by the city of Shaoguan, at least seven people were hurt. The tornado began on Saturday and was accompanied by hailstones on Sunday from roughly noon to 1 pm.

At least 200 hectares of cropland were destroyed and two coal mines flooded. Some sections of National Highway 205 were also destroyed, resulting in a heavy traffic jam.

In Nanxiong, 7,600 hectares of tobacco fields were flooded, along with 2,200 hectares used for growing rice, peanuts and other crops. A total of 277 houses were destroyed in the city, which is a major tobacco production base for the province.

At least three residents were injured in Nanxiong. The Guangdong provincial government sent relief teams to the tornado-hit areas to help fight the disaster and restore production as soon as possible.

In Zhejiang, the catastrophic hailstorm struck the south of the province on Saturday. It injured 15 people, tore down more than 8,000 houses and seriously damaged the local power system and farms.

In Wenling, one of the most seriously damaged cities, dark clouds suddenly blotted out the sky on Saturday afternoon. Then hailstones began to fall down hard and fast.

Witnesses said most of the hailstones were as big as hen's eggs, while some smaller ones looked like longan fruit.

Although the storm lasted for only about 10 minutes, the whole area's power system was damaged, meaning about 30,000 residents in the area had to light candles that night.

(China Daily April 15, 2003)