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© AFPRescuers distribute drinking water to residents along a flooded street in Wenling, eastern China's Zhejiang province, August 10, 2015.
Flooding in three central Chinese provinces has left at least 13 people dead and 13 others missing and disrupted the lives of nearly 1 million people, state media reported Thursday.

Heavy rains and flooding struck Sichuan, Guizhou and Hunan provinces starting Sunday, causing widespread damage, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Worst-hit was Sichuan's Xuyong county, where mud and debris filled streets up to the second floor of some buildings and about half a million people were affected.

Mudslides also destroyed dozens of homes and cut power and communications to the area, which lies in a flood plain at the base of steep mountains.



Two other people were killed in Guizhou, where thousands were moved to safety and more than 222,000 experienced other disruptions, including damage to housing and crops.

More than 150,000 were affected and almost 10,000 evacuated in Hunan, Xinhua said.

Seasonal flooding is a major problem in many parts of the vast country. The worst floods in recent history struck in 1998, killing 4,150 people, most of them along the Yangtze River, China's mightiest.

Source: AP