At least 1,100 missing as floods roar through China

ZHOUQU, China (AP) - Rescuers in three countries across Asia struggled Tuesday to reach survivors from massive flooding that has afflicted millions of people, as the death toll climbed in a remote Chinese town where hundreds died and more than 1,100 were missing from landslides.

In Pakistan, the United Nations said the government's estimate of 13.8 million people affected by the country's worst-ever floods exceeded the combined total of three recent megadisasters - the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Rescuers in the remote desert mountainsides in Indian-controlled Kashmir recovered more bodies, with the death toll rising to 165 from flash floods. Thousands of army and paramilitary soldiers continued clearing roads and removing the debris of hundreds of homes flattened in the Ladakh region by Friday's powerful thunderstorms.

About 200 remain missing, said Lt. Col. J. S. Brar, an army spokesman. With the road links being restored, nearly 300 people who fled to higher ground have returned to their homes, he said.

In China, the death toll jumped to 337 late Monday after Sunday's landslides in the northwestern province of Gansu - the deadliest incident so far in the country's worst flooding in a decade. A debris-blocked swollen river burst, swamping entire mountain villages in the county seat of Zhouqu and ripping homes from their foundations.

The government said 1,148 were missing and about 45,000 were evacuated. It was not known how many of the missing were in danger or simply out of contact as workers rushed to restore communications in the area. More rain is expected in the region over the next three days.

Photos showed wrapped bodies tied to sticks or placed on planks and left on the shattered streets for pickup.

Flooding in China has killed more than 1,100 people this year and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage across 28 provinces and regions. In one province alone, Jilin in the north, nearly 2 million people were evacuated because of flooding.

But the situation has improved at the Three Gorges Dam. Late last month the water level at the world's largest hydroelectric project reached a record 518 feet (158 meters), but it has since fallen 12 feet and the inflow of water has dropped dramatically. The maximum capacity of the reservoir built to end centuries of floods along the Yangtze River is 573 feet (175 meters).

In Pakistan, two weeks of flooding have killed 1,500.