HEFEI: Heavy rain has affected more than 8.4 million people in east China’s Anhui Province, local authorities said. Continuous downpours led to the evacuation of some 1.12 million people and caused direct economic losses of nearly 33 billion yuan (about 4.7 billion U.S. dollars) as of 11 a.m. Saturday, according to the provincial disaster reduction and relief commission. The rain also damaged crops grown over 986,000 hectares, the commission said. – Agencies
