Authorities in southwest China's Chongqing City have confirmed three people were killed in natural disasters triggered by torrential rains between Saturday and Monday.

The dead were Liu Cheng, a five-year-old boy from Bailong Township of Qianjiang District, and Huang Xuxue, 56, and Huang Yi,14, a father and son of a Fengjie County family, said the municipal civil affairs department.

Liu was buried in landslides triggered by the rains Saturday, while the Huangs were killed when part of their home collapsed after being hit by a falling boulder.

Also damaged were 4,765 rural houses in Qianjiang, in the southeastern part of Chongqing, the worst hit area.

Lightning strike also destroyed a 35- kilovolt power transmission line in Yunyang County in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, cutting water supplies to 100,000 residents in urban areas of Yunyang. Water supplies were not restored until early Monday, said local officials.

Liu De, chief of the municipal weather service, said the downpour began Saturday. Zhen'an in Kaixian County had been monitored as having a rainfall of 253.6 mm.

He said the rainy weather alleviated the long-standing autumn drought in most areas of the city.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2009)