Sixteen local people have been confirmed dead in the collapse of the dam of a small reservoir Thursday in southwest China's Yunnan Province after rescuers found the only missing body Friday afternoon.

Twenty-three villagers who were injured in the accident have been hospitalized and are in a stable condition.

The dam of the small reservoir collapsed in torrential rains at around 6:20 AM Thursday at Daqiao Village in Yiliang County. Huge volumes of water washed through the village when most villagers were fast asleep, said Guo Youquan, an official with the county government.

Altogether 19 houses and 40 hectares of cropland in three villages were drowned after the collapse of the reservoir, which had a storage capacity of 80,000 cubic meters, and direct economic loss was estimated at about 4.64 million yuan (US$560,000), he said.

Local government has provided a relief fund of 400,000 yuan (US$49,300) and relief goods to the flooded villages.

Each of the dead's family will be compensated 4,000 yuan (US$480) and the nine families which lost houses in the flood will get anywhere 10,000 to 20,000 yuan (US$1200-2400), said Guo.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2005)