Floods, landslides kill 35 in southwest China

BEIJING (Reuters) - Floods, landslides and hail in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan have killed 35 people, state media said on Monday.

The storms have affected around 1.9 million people and caused losses of some 575 million yuan ($83.70 million) in the province, the official Xinhua news agency said, though it did not specify a timeframe.

In the eastern province of Anhui, torrential rain and floods over the weekend affected about 541,000 people, it added.

Rain and floods, concentrated in China's heavily industrialized south, have killed at least 176 people already this year, as authorities struggle to shelter millions made homeless by the 7.9 magnitude quake that struck the southwestern province of Sichuan on May 12.

"Some of these regions were hit by the heaviest rain in more than a century," Xinhua said.

Typhoon Fengshen, which weakened to a tropical storm over the South China Sea, pounded the Philippines at the weekend with gusts of up to 195 kph (120 mph), and is expected to bring more rain to southern and eastern China.

At least 155 people were killed, largely by drowning, in a torrent of floods in the south and centre of the archipelago, and nearly 800 are missing from a capsized ferry.

($1=6.870 Yuan)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by David Fox)