Authorities have moved over 300,000 people from their homes in southern China after heavy rain toppled houses, flooded roads and damaged a dam, Chinese state media said today.

Three people have died in the three days of rain, and four are missing in Jiangxi and Guangxi provinces, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The rains caused 287 rural houses in Guangxi to topple and inundated Rongshui county causing the Rongjiang river to overflow its banks. More than 70,000 people in the province have been moved, the news agency said.

Another 80,000 people were forced from their homes in southern Jiangxi province, where rain also damaged crops.

The rain destroyed a 44-foot section of a dyke near the base of the Kama Reservoir in Guangxi, Xinhua said, and 150,000 people who lived downstream from the dam were moved to safety.

Local governments in Guangxi are distributing relief materials and trying reinforce the reservoir dam, it said.

Half of Rongshui county's townships received rain of over 100 millimetres from Wednesday to Friday, and the county government estimated it had caused 210 million yuan (£19 million) in damages.