Two destructive rainstorms in the past two weeks have killed 21 people and affected at least 4.6 million people in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the local government said on Wednesday.

The two rainstorms, hitting 71 counties of the region between June 7 and 10 and between June 13 and 15, caused mud-rock flows, landslides and mountain torrents in the cities of Wuzhou and Baise, said a spokesman with the regional civil affairs department.

He said the disastrous weather affected at least 4.6 million residents, with another 195,500 evacuated.

The civil affairs department has sent five rescue teams to nine cities to help locals reconstruct their homes, he said.

Meanwhile, the central government has appropriated 21 million yuan (US$2.625 million) of relief fund, which will be distributed among the disaster-ravaged cities including Wuzhou and Guilin, the spokesman said.

Continuous heavy rains since late May have also caused serious floods in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces as well as Chongqing municipality.

By mid June, China's central government had earmarked 116 million yuan (US$14.5 million) in emergency disaster relief for flood victims in south China.

China suffers floods every year during the June-to-August rainy season, during which rivers overflow and water rushes down mountains, often causing deadly landslides.

(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2006)