BEIJING, June 17: Heavy rain caused a landslide of garbage that engulfed a workers’ dormitory and factory in a mountainous area of southwestern China, killing 10 and injuring at least four others, state media said on Monday.

The dump above the two buildings in Chongqing municipality contained thousands of cubic metres of garbage and had been used for more than 10 years, reports said.

The death toll in severe floods across many parts of western China in the past week has risen to more than 300, with scores more missing.

Heavy rain forecast to move south this week. The provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangxi are especially at risk, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Two people died in a mudslide in Fujian over the weekend, while a break in the main railway line through Guangxi left 13,000 travellers stranded, the agency said.

Floods have killed more than 150 people in the worst-hit province of Shaanxi, northwestern China, where some 100,000 soldiers have been mobilized to help flood victims.

Chongqing flood control officials have evacauted 14,300 people from vulnerable areas.

Many people expect this summer’s floods to be the worst in China since 1998, when some 4,150 people died.—dpa