More than 100,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes due to the floods, which damaged 7,000 houses and caused economic losses of 830 million yuan (120 million dollars), the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The provinces of Fujian and Sichuan, in China's southeast and southwest respectively, as well as the southern region of Guangxi were the hardest hit, it said.

Torrential rains that started battering parts of southern China on Sunday were expected to continue for the next three days, the national meteorological centre said.

The centre has warned local authorities to prepare for more flooding and disasters such as landslides, Xinhua added.

On Tuesday, 23 people were killed when part of a mountain made loose by heavy rain cascaded onto a construction site in Sichuan, slamming into tents where workers were sleeping.

It was not clear whether they were included in the reported flood death toll.

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