Five dead after heavy rains in eastern China, crops damaged in northeast

In a village in Hangzhou, eastern China, on Saturday, severe rain burst a river bank, flooding homes and sweeping people and their possessions away, leaving two people missing and five people dead, according to state media. Pictures from the Beijing Youth Daily showed that muddy water flowed through streets in a village in Dayuan township, pouring into homes and flipping over cars. Late July brings considerable rain to China on average, but recent years have seen an increase in the intensity and unpredictability of storms. On Saturday, torrential rain also swamped portions of China’s northeast, damaging dozens of homes and destroying crops in the nation’s breadbasket.. Almost 5,600 people were evacuated by authorities in Liaoning province, reported state broadcaster CCTV, after several cities received more than 100 millimetres of rain. One district of provincial capital Dalian received 93 millimetres of rain in an hour. Rescue workers were seen wading through water up to their knees with inflatable dinghies, pictures published by CCTV showed. About 54 hectares of crops were damaged in the area around Jinzhou and the coastal city of Huludao. Parts of the northeast had been hit by drought in May and June but recent rain has alleviated the situation, the agriculture ministry said on Friday. It added that there were still risks to local crops - mainly corn and soybeans - with this year’s El Nino weather pattern likely to bring more extreme weather. More heavy rain was expected on Sunday across much of the country, with rain storms and strong wind in parts of the northeast and southern Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.