Tornado, hail storms kill 78 in east China

BEIJING: Extreme weather, including hailstorms, heavy rain and a tornado, killed 78 and injured dozens in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
The powerful tornado also destroyed large numbers of buildings, it reported.
The tornado hit near the city of Yancheng in the province around 2:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) on Thursday, levelling homes, according to state broadcaster CCTV and other official media.
They said large numbers of people were injured and roads were blocked.
CCTV showed people carrying the injured to hospitals, cars and trucks flipped over on their roofs, street light poles snapped in half, and steel electricity pylons crumpled and lying on their side.
The Jiangsu provincial fire and rescue service provided no word on casualties but said on its microblog that the storm was accompanied by hail. Photos posted online showed a wrecked three-story schoolhouse with large trees strewn on its playing field.
Southern and eastern China have experienced weeks of torrential rain and storms that have caused widespread flooding and dozens of casualties.
The southern part of the country is hit every year during the monsoon season of May, June and July, but this rainy season has been particularly wet. Water levels in some major rivers have exceeded those of 1998, when China was hit by disastrous floods that affected 180 million people, according to state media reports.
Many parts of China have been lashed by torrential rains this week as summer rainstorms have been heavier than usual, causing damage across the country.
In central China heavy floods killed 22 people and displaced 197,000, state media said on Monday.
Direct economic losses from the floods hit nearly 2.7 billion yuan ($410 million), state media reported.
China’s vice premier Wang Yang said days earlier that China faced volatile weather conditions due to the influence of El Nino.
The storms brought down power lines and houses, Xinhua news agency said.
“Downpours, hail storms and a tornado battered parts of Yancheng city ... causing many houses to topple,” it said.
Pictures posted by media online showed injured people lying amid overturned houses and cars, split tree trunks and broken power lines.
Severe floods in southern China killed at least 22 people and left 20 missing earlier this week.