Hailstorm In China (15.05.2012) [HD]
Forty people were killed when a brief but violent hailstorm and torrential rain swept through a mountainous region of northwest China.
Eighteen others remained missing in Min county, a disaster-prone area of Gansu province, while 87 had been sent to hospital, the local government said.
Officials said 29,300 people were evacuated after rain and hail battered the county for just an hour late on Thursday afternoon.
It "wreaked havoc" on all of the county's 18 townships and affected more than two-thirds of its 450,000 residents, the state-controlled Xinhua news agency reported.