Natural disasters affect nearly 10 mln people in China in May

Natural disasters affected about 9.89 million people in China last month, with 43 killed, four missing and 127,000 relocated, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

Destroying houses and damaging crops, natural disasters caused direct economic losses of 11.96 billion yuan (about 1.7 billion U.S. dollars) in May, the ministry said.

The country was mainly hit by drought, floods and hailstorms last month, while earthquakes, landslides, low temperatures, snow disasters and forest fires caused damages to various extents.

Specifically, floods affected 3.59 million people and forced 114,000 to be relocated, with 29 people killed and four missing.

The impact of natural disasters in May was slightly less compared to the average level of same period over the past five years, the ministry added.

xinhuanet.com