Giant Hailstones Kill 15 In Central China

July 20, 2002

BEIJING, July 20 (Reuters) - A downpour of giant hailstones, some the size of eggs, killed 15 people and left hospitals overflowing with head-wound victims in central China, state media and local officials said on Saturday.

The hailstorm, with winds of up to Force Eight, struck northern parts of Henan province on Friday evening, uprooting trees, smashing car windscreens, cutting off electricity and destroying buildings, they said.

Locals described it as the worst hailstorm in at least half a century, state radio said. Television news showed pictures of a gutted petrol station, uprooted trees and victims being loaded into ambulances.

The violent hailstorm only lasted for half an hour but by the time it had finished, all the ambulances in the cities of Zhengzhou and Luoyang had been called out and emergency rooms were soon crammed full of people with head gashes, the radio said.

An official in the Zhengzhou city government contacted by telephone said the death toll of 15 was only for cities in the affected area along the south bank of the Yellow River.

"About 10 people were killed on the spot," he said. "Some more were seriously wounded and may have died in hospital."

An official in the Luoyang city government said there had been no reported deaths in the city and damage was limited.

The Xinhua news agency quoted the director of the Henan Meteorological Bureau, Gu Wanlong, saying they had only issued a warning about the storm one hour before it struck because they lacked a sophisticated radar system.

"If the warning had reached the public in time, a lot of damage might have been avoided, like deaths, injuries, traffic accidents and collapsed buildings," Gu said.

More than 800 people have died in floods and torrential rains across China this year and officials are now bracing for flooding worse than that of 1998, when the Yangtze River overflowed and deluges killed more than 4,000 nationwide.

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