10 killed by natural disasters in November

Natural disasters across China claimed 10 lives and caused direct economic losses of 192 million yuan (31.2 million US dollars) in November, according to an official statement.

Disasters last month, including two major earthquakes measuring over 5in magnitude, also affected more than 210,000 in 39 county-level regions and displaced thousands of people, according to information from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Commission for Disaster Reduction.

The figure for direct economic losses did not include losses inflicted by the two quakes in southwest China's Sichuan Province, which have yet to be tallied.

Some 400 houses collapsed and about 114,000 were damaged to varying degrees. Disasters affected 15,200 hectares of farmland, with over 1,200 hectares yielding no crops at all.

The statement said that, compared with the same period in previous years, this November saw a lighter impact from natural disasters, but people in the quake-hit areas are still under threat from freezing weather.

Floods, hail, landslides, snowstorms and forest fires were also seen in the month.