NANNING, June 16 -- Heavy rain across Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China since Thursday has left eight people dead and three missing, local authorities said Tuesday.

Some 788,900 people in the region have been affected, with 11,200 evacuated. Of the deceased, two were struck by lightning, five drowned, and another died when a building collapsed, the local civil affairs department said.

Some 49,000 hectares of crops have been damaged and 1,415 houses collapsed. The weather has caused estimated direct economic losses of 420 million yuan (67.66 million U.S. dollars).

Access to 16 major roads in the region had been cut off, traffic on seven of the main arteries had resumed as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Economic losses due to the damage to the roads was estimated at 16.25 million yuan, local transport authorities said.

The National Meteorological Center issued a storm alert for southern China on Sunday, forecasting heavy rain across parts of Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hubei and Anhui provinces as well as Guangxi.