The death toll from rain-triggered disasters in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has climbed to 44 as of Thursday, local authorities said.

In Rongxian County, one of the worst hit areas, the number of deaths climbed to 27 after a rain-triggered landslide, an official with the county's emergency rescue office said in a press release on Thursday.

Rescue workers are still searching for another three missing villagers, it reported.

More than 5,300 people in the county were evacuated after their homes were destroyed by landslides, official statistics showed.

Besides Rongxian, 12 people in Cenxi County were confirmed dead as of Wednesday night, while three deaths were reported in Fangchenggang City, local authorities said.

Heavy rains began pouring in Guangxi on Monday and triggered landslides on Wednesday morning.

The rainstorm also caused two minor earthquakes, both of which were below 2 magnitude, in Laibin of Guangxi, local authorities said.

Statistics from the Guangxi bureau of civil affairs showed that as of Wednesday, about 1.7 million people from 19 counties in seven cities had been affected with direct economic losses reaching 665 million yuan (US$98 million).

Across the region, the rainstorms battered 27 counties and nearly 80,000 people had been evacuated as of Wednesday night, Xinhua reported.

Although the precipitation ended on Thursday, the China Meteorological Administration said the risks of floods, landslides and overflowing of dams has increased due to the previous rainstorms in the southern area.

Since May 31, the local meteorological bureaus have issued 12 alerts for severe rainstorms.

The worst rainstorms in the past 54 years began in Guangxi on Monday. Laibin Experimental High School was flooded by rains with more than 800 students temporarily trapped in the buildings, but all the trapped have now been moved to safe areas.

A total of 65 schools in Laibin City were affected by the rainstorms on Wednesday and will reopen on Friday for students to prepare for the coming college entrance exam on June 7 and 8.

Floods have killed 125 people and left 34 people missing in the country so far this year, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on Thursday.

The deaths were mainly attributed to landslides in mountainous areas caused by rains, the headquarters said.

Boats transport relief supplies in Beigeng Township, Xincheng County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 3, 2010. The flood triggered by heavy rain since Wednesday in Guangxi killed 38 people as of Thursday, according to local authorities. Across Guangxi, the rainstorms had battered 27 counties and nearly 80,000 people had been evacuated as of Wednesday night, the local government said. [Xinhua]

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2010)