A rainstorm that lashed Mianning county in Sichuan province, for example, caused the deaths of 12 people, and another 10 are reported missing as of 16:00 Sunday.

The rainstorm started at 6 pm on Friday and ended at 1 am on Saturday, causing two deaths after part of a national highway collapsed and one car and one minivan fell into a river. The other 10 deaths were reported in the town of Yihai, according to the county's information office.

Sheltered in one of the four resettlement areas accommodating more than 2,100 people affected by the rainstorm, Ah Limo, 13, from the village of Caogu, said that it was "terrifying".

Two hours after the rainstorm struck the county together with hail, the power supply was cut. At 11 pm, a village official asked his family to go to a resettlement area to escape the flood.

He Jianmei, deputy Party secretary of Mianning, said each resident in the four resettlement areas received two loaves of bread, a bag of milk and mineral water for supper on Saturday and lunch boxes on Sunday.

The Ministry of Water Resources warned of the risk of major floods of small and medium-sized rivers in areas affected by the coming rainfall.

Due to downpours from 8 am on Friday to 8 am on Saturday, 13 rivers in southern parts of the country rose above their warning levels. As the rainfall continues, watercourses in the basins of the Yangtze, Huaihe and Pearl rivers and Taihu Lake are expected to see a marked increase in their water levels, it said.

The ministry has demanded intensified monitoring and patrolling to cope with the situation.