Insurance companies in China have paid 1.97 billion yuan (about US$277.6 million) in claims arising from this winter's severe snowstorms, industry regulators said in Beijing on Monday.

Insurers received about 1 million claims arising from the weather, said China Insurance Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Zhou Yanli. Insurers had so far paid 66.3 million yuan for agriculture-related claims, 790 million yuan for auto-related claims and 867 million yuan for enterprise property-related claims, he said.

Aluminum Corporation of China received the single largest payment, of 60 million yuan, Zhou said.

The severe weather, the worst in 50 years, caused losses of about 80 billion yuan, toppled 300,000 homes, and damaged 90 million hectares of crops in 19 provinces and regions, the Red Cross Society of China said in early February.

The disaster also killed 129 people and disrupted transport and power services across a large swathe of the country's southern, central and eastern regions.

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2008)