China: Flooding death toll surpasses 500 More heavy rain is forecast for hard-hit Guangdong province

China: Flooding death toll surpasses 500More heavy rain is forecast for hard-hit Guangdong province

BEIJING - Flooding and mudslides have killed at least 536 people across China in the past two weeks, with more heavy rain forecast in the southern province whose factories are the heart of the country’s booming export industries, the government said Friday.

There was no immediate official word on the economic impact of storms forecast for Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong and is China’s most populous region with more than 100 million people. But state media said road and railway traffic in some areas was cut, including the main Beijing-Hong Kong railroad.

Some 1.4 million people have been evacuated from a five-province swath of the densely crowded south, while total economic losses were estimated at $2.5 billion, the official Xinhua News Agency said.