Flood death toll in China rises to 66

BEIJING, China -- Flooding along rivers in China's southern province of Guangxi has affected nine million people and killed 66 since May, the state-funded China News Service says.

At least five people were killed when their vehicles plunged into a river after flash floods brought down part of a bridge in the province's Luzhai county on Wednesday, police said.

Economic damage from flooding had reached 1.7 billion yuan ($205 million) with nearly nine million people affected, the report said.

Rising waters have toppled 15,800 houses and covered 335,000 hectares of farmland throughout the province, it said, but did not say which crops were affected.

Reuters reports that Southern China has been deluged in recent days, while the north reels from the worst drought since the 1990s.

Rainfall this week has helped alleviate drought in Beijing, the capital, and Tianjin city, as well as the provinces of Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shandong and Liaoning, the official China Daily said on Saturday.

But it remains a problem, the newspaper said.

($1-8.277 Yuan)