Rain kills 5 in Gansu province

LANZHOU - Torrential rain that fell for six hours from Friday night to early Saturday morning in a district in Northwest China's Gansu province has left five people dead and two injured.

The rain lashed Anding District in the city of Dingxi from 9 pm on Friday to 3:10 am on Saturday, with some areas receiving precipitation of up to 195 mm, the district government said in a statement.

The downpour also affected nearly 1,000 families in seven townships and neighborhoods, toppled homes and damaged 100 km of country roads, it said.

Local residents told Xinhua that some courtyard homes were flooded by water of more than 30 cm deep and they suffered losses as vegetables they planted were mostly inundated at a time for harvest.

The disaster relief operation is under way.