Floods in China kill more than 150, with dozens missing and thousands evacuated

Concerns have been raised over a lack of forewarning given to villagers in one northern province, along with claims local authorities had attempted to cover up a number of casualties

Flash floods in China have left at least 154 people dead, 124 missing and many more injured, with hundreds of thousands forced to evacuate their homes.

Over several days, heavy rains flooded rivers and triggered landslides across the country, destroying homes and provincial villages amid complaints that many of the areas affected were given little to no warning of the forecasted floods.

The majority of fatalities reported were in the northern province of Hebei, where more than 300,000 people were evacuated and the provincial Department of Civil Affairs said 114 people were killed and 111 had been reported missing.

Nearly 50,000 homes are said to have collapsed in the province, as well as 18,000 damaged in the central province of Henan.

In the Hebei city of Xingtai alone, 25 people were killed and another 13 reported missing. Chinese authorities have said they will provide funds for the millions of people affected by the floods.

Henan has reported 15 deaths so far, with 72,000 evacuated.

By Friday, evidence began to appear on Chinese social media showing angry citizens blocking roads and accusing local authorities of failing to notify them in time for evacuation, after an upstream reservoir discharged the floodwaters through their villages.

The Xingtai village of Daxian was swamped by a flash flood early on Wednesday while residents were asleep. Eight people, including three children, were killed and another was missing in the flood, the Xingtai government said.

Concerns were raised, however, after suggestions the Daxian flash flood was a result of a human-made fault, rather than the breaking of a levee, as officials claimed.

Images of drowned victims accompanied online posts accusing officials of covering up the tragedy by failing to report the deaths in the area. State media later confirmed that a local official had said the flash flood caused no fatalities.

In response, local authorities started to release casualty figures and offered explanations late on Friday, Associated Press reported.

Authorities blamed extraordinary rainfall and a failure of a river levee near the village for the sudden water surge. Local media reported that the river channel is particularly narrow near the village of Daxian and has been blocked by pipes from a heating utility, as well as mud.

Qiu Wenshuang, a vice mayor of Xingtai, said on Saturday that the flood was sudden and that the village was already flooded when officials arrived there to evacuate residents on Wednesday morning, according to state media reports.

More than 1.5 million hectares of crops are said to have been damaged as a result of especially heavy rains and flooding in China this year, amounting to losses of more than $3bn (£2.3bn).

Additional reporting from AP