Beijing, July 17 (IANS) More than 8.1 lakh people have been affected as heavy rain battered China's Guangxi region, officials said on Wednesday.

Rain in the area began on Friday but the precipitation came to an end by Wednesday evening. It affected a total of 816,523 people while two deaths were also reported so far, Xinhua news agency quoted officials of the local emergency management department as saying.

In the floods and water-logging that hit 47 districts in nine cities, nearly 65,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed and the homes of nearly 2,000 families collapsed or were damaged, leading to a direct economic loss of 1.4 billion Yuan (about $208 million).

--IANS mag/bg