Beijing- At least 18 people died and 12 were missing after rainstorms brought floods to parts of southern China on Monday and Tuesday, state media said.

Torrential rain brought floods and hailstorms to the southwestern province of Guizhou, where 18 people were reported dead and 12 missing, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Rainstorms also affected more than 38,000 people in the neighbouring province of Hunan, damaging homes, crops and roads, the agency said.

Hunan's Yuanling county recorded 224 millimetres of rain by Tuesday morning, it quoted the Hunan provincial flood control office as saying.

Nearly 300 residential buildings were damaged in six townships of Yuanling county, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, the agency said.

The rain flooded 11 sections of a major provincial highway and cut communications and power supplies to some areas of the county, it said. (dpa)