The death toll in China from Tropical Storm Bilis has risen to 612, with another 208 people missing, state media said on Monday in another major reassessment of the impact of the devastating floods.
Xinhua news agency, citing the nation’s disaster-relief commission, gave no reason for the sudden jump in the casualty numbers from the storm, which first struck south and central China on July 14.
The revised numbers came after the government raised the death toll to 530 on Friday, up from 228 reported just a day earlier.
Local officials were quoted by state media on Monday as saying the fast-rising death toll could be because authorities were initially focused on disaster relief rather than counting bodies.
However, concerns that there may have been a cover-up have been raised.
The government of central China’s Hunan province, which bore the brunt of the destruction from Bilis, warned on Saturday that officials who tried to hide the death toll will be punished.
The commission said on Monday that about three million people had to be relocated due to the storm. — AFP
