Strong gales, rain and hail have claimed 13 lives, injured 30 and left one missing by 12:00 p.m. Sunday in southwest China's Sichuan Province, said an official with the provincial disaster relief department.

He said most casualties were caused by lightning strike and house collapse.

The violent weather, the worst so far this year, also destroyed more than 20,000 houses, damaged cropland and cut off power supplyin more than 20 cities and counties including Yibin, Leshan and Dazhou since Friday noon.

The local meteorological bureau said Emeishan city alone reported 68.8 millimeters of rainfall, the strongest gales scaled nine or ten and the largest hailstones were 30 millimeters in diameter.

Governor Zhang Zhongwei of the province has sent a work team toinstruct relief work in Leshan city, one of the worst affected areas.

Source: Xinhua