So far, more than 200,000 cave dwellings or houses close to hills and mountains have collapsed due to heavy rains since September, said an official surnamed Wang with the disaster relief department of the Shaanxi Civil Affairs Bureau.

A further 530,000 cave dwellings have been damaged by rain water and rendered uninhabitable, Wang told China Daily yesterday.

About 2.5 million people in 58 counties of the province have been affected by the collapse of their homes, he said.

The bureau has sent five working groups to affected areas to help relief work, he said.

The most affected cities and counties include Baoji, Weinan, Xianyang, Tongchuan and Chengcheng in the Weihe River basin where heavy rain and floods have struck in the last few months.

In Chengcheng County alone, more than 110,000 cave dwellings have collapsed since late September, county officials said.

The county has allocated more than 2 million yuan (US$240,000) to assist disaster victims and 2,000 tents and thousands of cotton quilts and items of warm clothing have reached the victims.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has earmarked 60 million yuan (US$7.3 million) for relief, sources with the ministry said yesterday.

Civil affairs departments in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian and Qingdao have been designated by the ministry to donate quilts and clothing to help Shaanxi victims get through the winter.

A batch of clothing and quilts donated by Beijing was already on its way, ministry sources said.

The Weihe River has experienced its worst flooding in 20 years since late August, inundating over 200 square kilometres of land. A total of more than 300,000 people have been evacuated as a result.

The floods in Shaanxi have led to 123 people being reported dead or missing.

(China Daily October 28, 2003)