China rains: Five dead, thousands stranded
At least five people have been killed and thousands more have been left stranded after record rainfall hit southern China, officials say.
Hundreds of homes and thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed by the downpours, which are expected to continue for several days.
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More than two million people have been affected and roads and bridges have been badly damaged, state media report.
In Guizhou province, an entire town was submerged under 2m (6ft 6in) of water.
Elsewhere, China's metrological association said rainfall in the southern provinces of Jiangxi and Hunan had hit record highs for June.
In Jiangxi province alone, 150,000 people were relocated after nine cities were swamped by deep floodwaters.
More than 20,000 homes in the south-west region of Guangxi are without power, the state-run China Daily newspaper reports.
Rainstorms are expected to spread to a number of areas including Guangdong, Sichuan and Taiwan by Thursday, the metrological administration said.
It also warned local authorities to be on alert for dangerous mudslides caused by the flooding.
Torrential rain has triggered mudslides in southern China in the past. In 2014, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces were hit by large mudslides that caused damage to houses, roads and vast areas of farmland.
