In the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, nine people were killed over the weekend as heavy rains triggered floods and landslides in the area of 31 million, a civil affairs official told AFP.

Seven of them were killed Saturday when a bus was hit by a falling rock as it passed through mountainous terrain eroded by days of downfall, the official said.

"Four were passengers on the bus, and the three others were passing by at the time when the rock struck," he said.

The heavy downpour also caused 483 injuries throughout the municipality, with material losses, including 8,400 damaged houses, estimated at 200 million yuan (24 million dollars), he said.

Ominously, rainfall in eastern China was causing water levels to rise again in the Huai river, which has already seen its worst flooding in more than a decade, the China Daily newspaper said.

Meanwhile, southern China's Guangdong province, home to 78 million people, was bracing itself Monday for the onslaught of Typhoon Koni, which was approaching at a speed of 23 meters (77 feet) per second.

An official at the meteorological bureau on Leizhou peninsula said the typhoon was expected to make landfall later in the day.

"The typhoon will hit in full force early this evening," said the official, who gave his surname as Wang. "We have issued a warning urging people to be alert over the next 24 hours."

All fishing boats and ferries in the western part of Guangdong have been asked to return to typhoon shelters, the China Daily said.

People who live near coastal dykes or in houses that are unlikely to withstand the power of the typhoon have also been evacuated, the paper said.

Guangdong's capital, Guangzhou, meanwhile saw heavy rainfall on Sunday, relieving the city of the hottest weather in half a century with the mercury hitting 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit).

In the eastern province of Anhui, which has seen severe flooding this month, a powerful tornado struck over the weekend, affecting 203,500 people and damaging 14,500 houses, according to preliminary data.

"There are no reports of deaths or serious injuries yet," said an official with the civil affairs department in the provincial capital of Hefei.

The figures are expected to be revised upwards, as flooding has increased the difficulty in assessing the damage, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

TERRA.WIRE