At least 71 people have been killed in flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains in China and nearly 643,000 have been left homeless, a Chinese news agency reported Monday.

The highest death toll in the rains, which started Thursday, was in crowded Guangdong province in the southeast, where 18 people were killed and four were missing, the Xinhua news agency reported.

A rescuer delivers clean water and food Sunday to besieged residents in Fengshun County of south China's Guangdong province.
(Xinhua, Zhou Wenjie/Associated Press)

More than 72,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Guangdong, Xinhua reported.

The province is the heart of China's export-driven light-manufacturing industries, but there was no word of any damage to factories or shipping facilities.

Deaths and damage were reported in areas throughout southern China and the northwest. Over the last five days, torrential rains, mudslides and floods also hit Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces, where at least 48 people died, Xinhua said.

Every summer, China suffers deaths and damage when seasonal rains cause flash floods.

Big cities are sheltered by giant dikes, but fatalities are reported in farm communities that lack protection from rising rivers and in mountain towns that are hit by flash floods.

Flood-prone farmland

Millions of people in central and southern China live on flood-prone reclaimed farmland in the flood plains of rivers.

Last year, flooding and typhoons killed 2,704 people, the China Meteorological Administration said. That was the second-deadliest year on record after 1998 when summer flooding claimed 4,150 lives.

In Guangxi, the floods killed 13 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, Xinhua reported. The province is a poor, mountainous region to Guangdong's west.

Thousands of students who were taking national university entrance exams in Guangxi had to move to emergency centres after school buildings were flooded, the agency reported.

Rains in Guangxi destroyed 29 reservoirs and forced 59 factories to suspend production, Xinhua said, citing Chen Rundong, deputy director of the regional flood control office.