China evacuates one million as flooding kills 100 people

MORE than 100 people have died in floods and landslides in China, and tens of thousands have fled their homes in the east where dykes are in danger of being breached by a swollen river.

Severe flooding has hit about half of China since the start of the summer, killing hundreds in what has become the deadliest rainy season in years. Natural disasters, mostly floods, have killed more than 800 people so far this year. Television pictures for days have shown villagers wading chest-high through muddy water and old people being carried from their inundated homes.

Fifty-nine people have died after rainstorms in mountainous Yunnan province in the south-west, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.