Floods have claimed seven more lives in seven provinces, bringing the death toll across the country to 101, a spokesman with the Ministry of Civil Affairs said yesterday.

A further 26 people are missing as a result of torrential rain that began lashing the Huaihe River valley, in the eastern area of Sichuan Province and southern area of Shaanxi Province on June 28.

Some 28 million people have so far been affected and as of 4 pm yesterday, nearly 800,000 people in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing and Shaanxi had been evacuated. More than 295,600 houses have been damaged.

Altogether, 2.13 million hectares of farmland have been affected, with losses estimated at 3.7 billion yuan (US$487 million), while the total direct economic losses could reach 6.9 billion yuan, the spokesman said.

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said yesterday that heavy rains will continue to batter the south.

Downpours are expected to continue in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces and the city of Chongqing, the CMA said.

These regions may also experience thunderstorms and strong winds, which could trigger mountain torrents, landslides and mudflows, the administration said.

In the worst-hit Sichuan Province, the death toll has climbed to 28 with 19 others missing following a continuous deluge since last Monday.

The provincial disaster relief office said floods have affected 8.19 million people, toppled 25,300 houses, damaged 48,700 others and affected 240,000 hectares of farmland.

Liu Jiang, an official with the office told China Daily the disaster had caused losses of more than 3 billion yuan.

So far, 320,000 people have been evacuated, Vice-Governor Guo Yongxiang, said.

In Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, floods caused by heavy rain over the weekend killed five people and inflicted damage worth an estimated 359 million yuan.

"The roads, power and water supplies, telecommunication and broadcasting in some counties were down and dams at 16 reservoirs had cracks," Dong Chunyuan, director of the anti-flood office in Hanzhong, the worst hit area, said.

Nature reserves for pandas, ibises and other wild animals in Hanzhong were well protected in the higher altitude areas of the Qinling Mountains, Dong said.

Authorities in East China's Zhejiang Province have alerted people in low-lying coastal areas of the approach of a tropical storm that formed early yesterday in the western Pacific.

Tropical storm Man-Yi, is continuing to gain strength and moving northwestward at a speed of 25 kph, the China Central Meteorological Station.

As of Sunday, 364 lives had been lost and 24 provinces and 59 million people had been affected, it said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2007)