"Apart from 217,000 houses wholly or partially destroyed, more than 4.28 million hectares of grain crops have been hit, with 2.03 million hectares totally destroyed," headquarters deputy director Cheng Dianlong was quoted as saying.

Most of the deaths occurred after downpours across the Jialing River Valley in the southwest province of Sichuan which have resulted in floods in almost all the tributaries of Jujiang River and triggered severe mountain torrents, mud-rock flows and landslides.

"Ferocious floods battered 40 counties along their route, submerging the downtown areas of four counties and shattering two small dams," Xinhua said.

Cheng warned the situation across the Huai River Valley was at flashpoint with all trunk rivers there reporting dangerously high water levels.

China flooded dozens of evacuated villages to ease pressure from the swollen Huai in the eastern province of Anhui.

More rain was forecast for the next two days along the Huai, flowing through the central province of Henan and the eastern provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu.

China's war against an estimated 2 billion marauding rats plaguing cropland around a flooded lake has claimed more than 2 million rodent casualties in one district alone, state media reported.

Farmers armed with ferrets and shovels had killed 90 tonnes of rats in the country's eastern province of Hunan, where 1.6 million hectares (6,200 sq miles) of cropland have been laid to waste by rats fleeing rising flood waters in the giant Dongting Lake.

The rodents, whose island habitats in the lake were submerged by the rising tide from heavy summer rains, migrated in huge numbers to dry land, leaving a trail of destruction in about 20 counties, local farmers and officials told Wednesday's China Daily.