At least five people were killed, 15 went missing and 13 were stranded when heavy rainstorms struck Meizhou city in the eastern part of South China's Guangdong province on Saturday. 

Due to the influence of the strong precipitation cloud system, extremely heavy rainstorms were reported in Meizhou, Pingyuan and Jiaoling counties in the previous days, causing many houses, bridges and highway sections to be destroyed and damaged and farmland to be flooded, according to a statement released by Guangdong provincial flood control headquarters on Monday.

The dead, missing and trapped persons were reported in the flood-hit areas where mountain landslides and related geologic hazards have occurred since the weekend.

The provincial flood control headquarters raised its emergency response for flood control to level III on Monday morning, requiring relevant departments and flood-hit cities to to go all out for the fight against the flooding.

Three helicopters have been sent to Meizhou to help rescue the stranded people, search for the missing and help distribute disaster relief supplies, the statement said.

Meanwhile, local governments have organized more than 200 rescue teams, consisting of more than 9,000 personnel to participate in emergency rescue.

The provincial flood control headquarters have also sent a total of 986 sets of equipment to Meizhou to help carry out rescue work.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Party chief of Guangdong province, has urged relevant departments in his province to go all out for the fight against the disaster, and put people's lives first in the battle against the disaster.

Top priorities should be given to minimize casualties and economic losses, he said.

Huang made the remarks at a video conference for flood prevention and disaster relief work in this Guangdong provincial capital on Monday.

Wang Weizhong, governor of Guangdong province, has also led working groups to the flood-hit areas to help guide local disaster relief work on Monday.

Contact the writer at zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn