Natural disasters kill 461 in July

Natural disasters across China claimed 461 lives and left 228 people missing in July, according to official statistics has unveiled. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Commission for Disaster Reduction said in a report relayed by the Chinese Xinhua news agency on Thursday that more than 81.58 million people were affected by disasters and 3.33 million people were forced to relocate. About 293,000 houses collapsed and 1.48 million houses were damaged to varying degrees, and nearly 7.81 million hectares of farmland were affected, with 1.21 million hectares left unable to yield any crops, according to the report. The disasters caused direct economic losses of 121.53 billion yuan (about 19.85 billion U.S. dollars). The figure, however, does not include losses caused by the 6.6-magnitude earthquake that hit northwest China’s Gansu Province on July 22, the report said, adding that the exact figure is still under assessment. Natural disasters in July were mainly floods, earthquakes, droughts and geological hazards, according to the report.