Six people were killed and another two are missing on Monday after severe rainstorms lashed a wide swath of south and east China, local officials said.

Of the dead, one was from the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, two from Wuhan city of central Hubei Province, and three from the eastern province of Anhui.

Two others are missing after a rainstorm caused landslides and a slag heap to collapse in Chongqing.

Rescuers were digging through the slag heap in Hechuan District of Chongqing on Monday afternoon, searching for two men who were buried during the rainstorm, said officials from the district government.

The rainstorm began to ravage Chongqing on Sunday and has led to temporary evacuation of thousands of people from their homes, saidLiu De, head of the Chongqing observatory. A village named Tiefeng was cut off power, roads and communication by the rainstorm.

Water levels in the rivers of Yangtze and Jialing began to rise on Monday morning and the Chongqing city was expected to brace for a flood peak early Wednesday morning, Liu said.

Heavy rain forced 285 people to evacuate, damaged 11,000 hectares of crops, and incurred a direct economic loss of 35.5 million yuan (US$5.2 million) in Anhui Province from June 26 to 29.

The thunderstorms caused landslides and damaged roads and bridges and also brought as much as 222.7 millimeters of precipitation to some parts of Anhui.

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2009)