The death toll from a fierce sandstorm in northwest China over the weekend has climbed to four, the civil affairs authority said Tuesday.

One more person was reported dead after raw materials belonging to a biochemical company burst into flames presumably caused by static created by the sandstorm, according to the statement issued by civil affairs department of Gansu Province.

Zhangye Shengyuan Biochemical Corporation, based in Zhangye City of Gansu Province, mainly uses plant waste to make biochemical products such as biomass fuel, according to its official website.

The 60-year-old dead woman was from Shiqiao Village, Xiaoman Town of Ganzhou District, Zhanye City.

Influenced by a cold front, Gansu was hit by the strongest sandstorm in nine years on Saturday and Sunday, with the visibility in some places down to 50 meters, and in Minqin and Jiuquan the visibility was zero.

Five people were reported injured in the standstorm in Minqin County, with 460 others being evacuated. Minqin reported 13 fires caused by the standstorm, the statement said.

The government had arranged urgent accommodation for the 460 evacuated people.

Preliminary statistics show that the sandstorm affected 1.32 million people in 19 counties in Gansu Province, and caused damages to 206,800 hectares of crops, of which 33,900 hectares were totally destroyed, according to the Gansu provincial civil affairs bureau.

The sandstorm also flattened 547 houses and damaged 822 others in the province, it said.

The violent sandstorm left three dead and one missing last Saturday in China's far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2010)