One more person has been confirmed dead after hailstorms ravaged southern parts of China on Sunday and Monday, bringing the death toll to 14.

The provincial disaster relief office of southwestern Sichuan said Tuesday in a circular that a 62-year-old man died in a flood that followed the hailstorm and another went missing on Sunday in Dazhou.

The hailstorms affected people, damaged crops and destroyed houses in Dazhou, a city in east Sichuan. Direct economic losses stood at 22 million yuan, according to the office.

Forty villages in neighboring Bazhong were also affected by the hailstorms.

Another 28,000 people in Guang'an City were affected and seven electricity facilities destroyed after hailstones and strong wind stuck on Sunday afternoon.

The hailstorms were caused a cold spell that lowered the highest temperatures by between 14-18 Celsius degree in various parts of Sichuan.

Technicians were sent by the Dazhou government to the worst-hit areas to help farmers grow crops. The Dazhou government also allocated three million yuan for disaster relief.

Hailstorms have ravaged southern parts of China since Sunday, killing 13 people in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing and one in Sichuan, closing an expressway and destroying crops on at least 120,000 hectares of farmland.

Seven people were killed and one was injured when a bus was caught up in a landslide caused by hailstorms in mountainous Chongqing on Monday. The other six were killed by falling roofs and lightning on Sunday and Monday, according to the Chongqing office of disaster relief.

Also on Sunday, hail "the size of eggs" pelted six counties in Fujian Province, on the southeast China seaboard, punching holes in thousands of homes.

The disaster relief office of Fujian told Xinhua on Tuesday that 99,200 people were affected and the economic losses stood at 115 million yuan in Fujian.

The office said 163 houses collapsed and 55,400 others damaged during the hailstorm, which also affected crops on 6,300 hectares of farmland.

In Shenghuang Town of Minqing County, one of the worst hit areas in Fujian, more than 10,000 residents from 4,000 households were affected. The storm caused direct economic losses of 11.7 million yuan.

Hail also destroyed power supply facilities in Lingkou, a village in northern Fujian.

The Fujian province department of civil affairs on Tuesday dispatched 100 tents and 500 quilts to Minqing to help local people.

Residents in shabby houses were relocated after the hailstorm. So far there have been no reports of casualties in Fujian.

However, the hailstorms also eased the lasting drought in southwest China.

The hailstorms ended water shortages of 110,000 people and 81,000 heads of livestock in Chongqing, but 1.61 million people and 1.23 million heads of livestock are still short of drinking water.

Meteorologists in Sichuan, where more than 5 million people had been short of drinking water, said that the hailstorms eased drought but warned of damages on crops.

(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2007)