More than 200 dead or missing in China floods

In this photo taken Sunday, Aug. 18, 2013, Chinese paramilitary police men evacuate residents through flood waters from typhoon Utor in Huaiji in south China’s Guangdong province. Rains brought by last week’s Typhoon Utor have caused severe flooding across Guangxi and neighboring Guangdong province. AP

BEIJING — Heavy rains brought by a typhoon triggered landslides in southern China that buried homes and vehicles and killed at least 15 people, as the number of dead or missing from recent flooding in the country surged past 200.

Nine people were reported killed in Hunan province and six in Guangxi, where vehicles were covered in mud and rocks along a mountain highway, local flood control offices said.

The deaths come after three people died Sunday in a landslide near the Guangxi city of Wuzhou.

Rains brought by last week’s Typhoon Utor have caused severe flooding across Hunan, Guangxi and neighboring Guangdong province. In Guangdong, 22 people have died and eight were missing in flooding since Friday.

By Tuesday morning, a total of 105 people were reported dead and 115 missing in the extreme south and northeast.

In the deadliest incident, torrential rains over the last week caused the Nei River in northeastern Liaoning province to overflow near the city of Fushun, sweeping away homes, roads and utilities and leaving 54 people dead and 97 missing.

Flooding hits China each summer, but heavy rains have brought greater than usual levels of destruction in some areas.