So far, 381 people have died from rainfall-related disasters since the beginning of the year, with 98 people still missing and 45.7 million affected, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

A majority of those killed -- 288 -- were swept away or buried by mountain floods, mudslides and landslides, with the worst affected provinces being Hunan, Yunnan, Henan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hubei and Sichuan.

In the latest incident, two people were killed and 53 were missing after being washed away Tuesday when a wall of mud came crashing down on three remote villages in Yingjiang county of southwest Yunnan province, near the border with Myanmar.

Two teams of soldiers, police and medical workers have rushed to the site with large amounts of garments, food and other relief supplies, but their efforts are being hampered by blocked roads.

"The rescue teams sent by the district government left Tuesday but haven't reported back yet," Tang Pei, from the Yingjiang district civil affairs bureau, told AFP.

"There are no phone lines at the village and no signals for mobiles. It is a remote area."

Some 750 people have been evacuated, the Xinhua news agency said.

In the Lisu prefecture of Yunnan province by the Nujiang River, water levels had receded below warning lines, but not before floods had killed six people, with 11 missing, the China Daily said.

Some 7,570 people were badly affected, 3,638 houses toppled and 310 hectares (765 acres) of fields submerged.

More than 2,000 soldiers and armed police fought floods with local residents along the swollen Nujiang for six days and nights.

Meanwhile, in central Hunan province flooding along major rivers has worsened, killing 12 people in the past four days, according to Xinhua, which added floodwaters trapped another 350,000 people.

Flooding also badly affected about 2.6 million people, the China Daily said.

Nearly one-third of the urban area of Huaihua city in Hunan was under water, with the deepest water level measuring five to six meters (16.5 to 19.8 feet).

The city was also hit by 970 landslides, in which two people were killed. So far, about 102,000 people have been moved to safer high ground.

In southwest Guangxi province, landslides crushed to death eight people in one county Monday, while incessant heavy rain in the past month has caused 67 mudflows which killed more than 20 people province-wide, China Daily said.

Some 2.6 million people were affected by flood waters in Guangxi, Beijing's Xinbao newspaper said.

Central Henan province has also been hit, with about 150,000 residents moved to safe places after rivers overlowed and embankments burst.

In Maoming city in southern Guangdong province, two counties, 11 townships and one reservoir were flooded, causing a direct economic loss of 164.7 million yuan (19.84 million US dollars) and affecting 256,000 locals.

Since the beginning of the year, rain-related disasters had caused an estimated nationwide economic loss of 14.8 billion yuan, including 197,000 collapsed rooms in houses.

President Hu Jintao this week ordered flood control departments to make full preparations for more possible floods.

Last year, floods claimed more than 1,900 lives by October and left millions homeless. The worst floods in recent years happened in 1998 when more than 4,000 people died.

More rain is expected to beat down on China's south and southwest in the next few days, but Xinhua said local flood prevention departments were "well prepared".

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