Tornadoes and storms in central China leave at least 11 people dead

Rescuers conduct work at a tornado-hit logistics park in the Huangzhou district of Huanggang City in central China’s Hubei Province (Xinhua via AP)

At least 11 people were killed and hundreds more injured after tornadoes hit a central province in China, state media reported.

Several areas in the eastern Hubei province were battered by thunderstorms on Monday night and the severe weather was affecting 14,600 people, the official state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

More than 330 people were injured and one person was missing, while more than 20 houses collapsed, with over 4,800 others damaged, it said.

A view of flooded downstream areas of the Liulan Reservoir after it was breached due to heavy rains in Hengzhou, Nanning City, south China (Xinhua via AP)

A rare EF2 tornado swept through Huanggang city where buildings were damaged.

A logistics company and a warehouse project were hit hard, where multiple trucks were lifted and displaced by winds as much as 30 meters (98 feet), Xinhua reported.

A video posted by Shanghai Daily on X appeared to show some people on the ground floor of a building screaming as high winds forced open the glass doors, shattering one of them.

Tornadoes are usually recorded in southern and coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Jiangsu, according to China Weather News, which is run by the China Meteorological Administration.

Flooded villages after the Liulan Reservoir breached due to heavy rains in Hengzhou, Nanning City, south China (Cao Yiming/Xinhua via AP)

They are rare in Hubei province and multiple factors, including the remnants of Tropical Storm Maysak, contributed to those that swept the region on Monday night, meteorological expert Wang Xiaoling told the Hubei Daily newspaper.

In southern China, officials said four people had died in Hengzhou city and eight others were missing as record-breaking rain from Maysak caused widespread flooding in the Guangxi region, Xinhua reported.

More than 53,000 people have been evacuated in Hengzhou, with another 8,000 evacuated in Binyang county, Xinhua said.

Guangxi issued a red alert, the highest level, for flooding on Tuesday.

River levels rose to up to 7.5 meters (24 feet) above warning levels, according to Xinhua.