BEIJING - More than 100 people have been buried or trapped in a landslide triggered by heavy rain in southwest China on Monday, a local official and state media said.

Rescue work was under way in the affected village of Dazhai in Guizhou province, the Xinhua news agency reported.

An official surnamed Wang in the Guanling county emergencies office told AFP that 107 people were trapped or buried, matching a revised figure given by Xinhua.
"It`s raining hard, making the rescue work difficult," she said, adding that the number of casualties was not yet known.

Parts of eastern, central and southern China have been doused with torrential rain for days. On Sunday, authorities said nearly 69 million people had been affected.

So far this month, at least 235 people have died and more than 100 others have gone missing in flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains, according to China`s civil affairs ministry.

The floods are among the worst in the southern part of the country since 1998, when more than 3,600 people were killed and more than 20 million displaced, Xinhua said.

At least 379 people have died in flooding in China this year, the government said at the weekend, putting economic losses at 82.4 billion yuan (12.1 billion dollars).

BDST: 1614 HRS, June 28, 2010
DC