Rain strands thousands in China

Updated 11.30 Thu Sep 25 2008

Keywords: China, Sichuan, rain, earthquake

Torrential rain has killed eight people and isolated more than 20,000 in an area of southwest China still recovering from a devastating earthquake.

Heavy rain caused flash floods, cave-ins and landslides in the Sichuan province near the epicentre of the quake, where survivors are still living in tents and pre-fabricated houses.

Thirty-eight people are missing and roads and telephone lines have been cut in the storms

At least 80,000 people were killed in the May 12 earthquake.

Thirty-eight people are missing and roads and telephone lines have been cut in the storms, China's Xinhua news agency said.

The downpours began to pound Mianyang city and surrounding countryside in Sichuan province on Monday night.

The rainstorms are separate to a typhoon which ploughed into south China on Wednesday, killing at least ten people, closing schools, cancelling flights, uprooting trees and bringing down billboards in several cities. Many rivers burst their banks.

Among the dead was the chief engineer of a British freighter tossed around in the storm off Guangdong, Xinhua said.

Thousands of homes and large areas of forestry and farms were destroyed.

The country remains on high alert for flash floods and landslides.