May 21, 2016 - 3:17 AM
BEIJING - At least eight people were killed and another four went missing in a strong storm that hammered a southern Chinese city, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.
All deaths and the missing people were reported in the city of Xinyi, which was hit the hardest by Friday's storm, which drenched houses, broke levees, flooded farmland and destroyed roads.
The Xinyi government said the storm brought the heaviest rainfall since 1954, when authorities started to collect weather data.
The accumulative precipitation was 46.3 centimetres (18.2 inches) from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon, and authorities recorded 13.3 centimetres (5.2 inches) in rainfall in one hour, the Xinyi government said.
More 540,000 people from 131 villages were affected by the storm, it said.
All 2,250 local cadres were called in to help with the rescue work this weekend, and school will be suspended, the Xinyi government said.
Xinhua said a nearby town was also affected, but to a much lesser degree.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016