Natural disasters affect 630,000 people in China in February

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Six People were killed or missing and 630,000 People were affected by natural disasters in China last month, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

In February, the country was mainly hit by earthquakes, low temperatures and snowstorms, as well as floods, hailstorms, landslides and forest fires, which forced more than 3,200 People to relocate, the ministry said Wednesday.

In breakdown, earthquakes killed two People and affected 44,000 People in February.

Destroying houses and damaging crops, natural disasters caused direct economic losses of 750 million yuan (about 111.8 million U.S. dollars).

The disaster situation in February was generally unchanged from the same period over the past five years, with affected population and direct economic losses reducing by 72 percent and 28 percent, respectively, while the number of damaged houses increasing by 107 percent, the ministry said.