An elderly woman was found dead in the mud-rock flow that engulfed Langhuan township, Xichang, Sichuan Province, shortly after midnight on Thursday.

The body of the 90-year-old was found at about 2:00 PM on Friday, Deng Xianxiang, Party secretary of Xichang, said, adding that two seriously injured villagers had been sent to hospital.

More than one-third of the rural township's paddy fields had been destroyed, he said.

About 20 homes collapsed and nearly 500 people were stranded after the flow was triggered by a rainstorm.

Firefighters, who were forced to abandon their vehicles after local roads became impassible, have rescued over 400 people, including more than 200 teachers and students in the high school, Yang Guangyou, head of Langhuan Village, said.

Meanwhile, a rainstorm in Pengshui County, Chongqing municipality, has killed two people and left one missing, Chongqing Evening News reported on Friday.

The rainstorm has been lashing the county since Wednesday. Rescue services are working to move the 165,000 affected by the storm, with 13,000 already transferred to safer places.

The rainstorm has caused economic losses of 37.6 million yuan (US$5.5 million).

A 9-year-old schoolgirl was killed on her way to school and a man died after his house's ceiling collapsed, while a coal miner is still missing after falling into floodwaters.

The rainstorm has also killed 7,000 chickens at a poultry farm and damaged 73 hectares of farmland.

(China Daily September 20, 2008)