Beijing, 26 June

Six people died due to severe flooding in southwest China's Guizhou province on Thursday, local officials said.

Continuous heavy rainfall and upstream inflows have triggered severe flooding in Rongjiang and Congjiang counties of Guizhou, prompting mass evacuations.

Over 80,000 people have been evacuated from the flood-hit counties.

The flood control emergency response has been escalated to Level I, the highest, in both counties.

Rongjiang, a county known for Cun Chao -- a rural football league covering over 100 village teams and drawing numerous fans across the country -- has seen heavy rainstorms since Monday.

The provincial emergency department allocated disaster relief items, including 30,000 bottles of drinking water and 10,000 bowls of instant noodles, to the two counties via high-speed rail and road transport.

Also in Guizhou, rain-triggered landslides caused the collapse of part of a bridge on an expressway in Sandu County.

No casualties have been reported so far from the incident, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.