Death toll in China rises as storms batter country

DPAWed, July 8, 2026 at 10:33 AM UTC1 min readAdd Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.Key takeawaysPowered by Yahoo Scout. Yahoo is using AI to generate key points from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.

• Severe storms in China have caused dozens of deaths, with a landslide in Gansu Province claiming 21 lives.
• A tropical storm in Guangxi led to a reservoir dam bursting, resulting in at least six deaths and the evacuation of 130,000 residents.
• Floods in Hubei province, including a tornado, have caused widespread destruction and claimed the lives of at least 11 people.

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Dozens of people are now known to have died in the severe storms that have kept China on high alert since the weekend.

The death toll following a landslide in north-west China has risen to 21, according to authorities.

A total of 33 people were buried in the landslide near the city of Longnan in Gansu Province. Of them, 12 survived, seven of whom were injured, the official news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday, citing the authorities.

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In the southern province of Guangxi, a tropical storm brought heavy rain. That caused a reservoir dam to burst in Hengzhou, near the city of Nanning, which has a population of around 900,000.

At least six people were killed in the province, while around 130,000 residents were evacuated.

Concerns also grew in Hengzhou after media reports said floods had allowed hundreds of snakes to escape from a breeding farm into the wild.

Videos showing snakes swimming through muddy floodwaters spread widely on Chinese social media.

Some of the snakes that escaped on Monday were venomous, Red Star News reported. Residents from neighbouring villages helped recapture the animals, the outlet quoted a local official as saying.

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Severe damage was also reported in the central province of Hubei, where a tornado swept through several towns on Monday, leaving widespread destruction in Huanggang, according to Xinhua. At least 11 people died in the storms in Hubei.

Clean-up operations were continuing on Wednesday, Chinese state television reported.