Two villagers were said missing in a rainstorm-inflicted flooding along a river in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Tuesday afternoon, local government sources said.
The two farmers of Hulan District of Harbin went missing as the flood peak in the Piaohe River began rushing to the lower reaches at about 2 PM Tuesday.
Qi Hongbao, an official with the information office of the Hulan District government, said that Piaohe is a small river and normally has a small amount of current.
Rainstorm early Tuesday morning formed a flood peak in the river that rushed to the lower reaches of the river in a short period of time. Two farmers who were working by the river side were washed away, Qi said.
Search for the two missing farmers was still continuing.
In another development, torrential rainstorms and ensuing floods in northeast China's Liaoning Province since Friday killed ten people, injured 46 and left 35 others missing, according to sources with the provincial department of civil affairs Monday.
The floods hit 20 counties of seven cities in Liaoning, affecting 1.44 million people.
The precipitation in the city of Fushun amounted to 150 mm and it reached 174 mm in Tieling City.
A total of 6,531 homes were destroyed and 118,000 hectares of farmland were left fruitless.
The provincial government has allocated 4.5 million yuan (about US$544,000) for emergency disaster relief.
The department of civil affairs relocated 188,000 homeless people and sent three working teams to the flood-hit areas to organize the disaster relief work.
(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2005)
