Two residents displace household items from the debris of their house after a rainstorm in Shangrao, East China's Jiangxi Province June 25, 2007. Nine counties in Shangrao were stuck by lightning, strong gale and hail, killing 16 residents. Among the dead, 14 farmers were killed by lightening while toiling on farmland and two by collapsed houses. [Photo: Newsphoto]

The death toll of lightning strikes in east China's Jiangxi and Zhejiang Provinces has risen to 37 as local meteorological authorities announced more deaths on Tuesday.

The meteorological authorities in Jiangxi said 32 people, up from the previous report of 18, had been killed by lightning from Saturday night to Tuesday evening, including 12 people hit while working in the fields outside the city of Shangrao.

Lightning killed five people on Monday when they were building a tomb in Zhejiang.

Another 11 were killed by floods or when their houses collapsed as a result of rainstorms sweeping China's central, east and southern parts over the weekend, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. And 12 others are missing.

Rain began to lash northern and central areas of Jiangxi on Saturday night. At least 12 counties received more than 50 millimeters of rainfall and 38 counties registered more than 25 millimeters of rainfall on Monday.

In the worst-hit area of Shangrao, 516,700 people are affected and 5,000 have been relocated. More than 16,000 hectares of crops are affected and 342 houses collapsed, incurring losses of 70 million yuan (9.1 million U.S. dollars).

Local meteorological stations have warned that lightning storms and rain will not subside until Wednesday.

An average of 50 people die each year in Jiangxi from lightning strikes.

Officials with the Jiangxi meteorological authorities said that most of the lightning strike victims were farmers who were not fully aware of the dangers.

The lack of shelter in the countryside was also to blame for the deaths.

Rainstorms have hit central China's Guizhou, Hunan and Hubei provinces and east Shanghai, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, affecting about 167,500 hectares of crops, destroying 19,200 hectares, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

More than 8,100 houses were destroyed and 34,000 damaged. About 73,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

The disasters have caused overall economic losses of more than 1.06 billion yuan (139 million U.S. dollars).