Dozens killed in China hailstorm Forty people killed after a hailstorm and torrential rain swept through Gansu province, officials say. Heavy downpours have caused sharp rises in river water levels and damage to roads and properties [AFP] Forty people have been killed after a brief but violent hailstorm and torrential rain swept through a mountainous region of northwest China, the local government has said. Eighteen others remain missing in Min county in Gansu province, while 87 have been sent to hospital, the county government said in a statement on its website on Sunday. Officials said 29,300 people had been evacuated after rain and hail battered the county for just one hour late on Thursday afternoon. It has "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. "Roads were blocked, houses collapsed, farmland was destroyed, and the power supply and telecommun...