More than a million people living near rivers in south are evacuated after floods kill 132 people and force 860,000 to flee their homes, with more storms forecast. Torrential rain sees rivers swell and houses hit by landslides.

Roads and houses in Shayuan village are submerged after floods hit south-east China's Jiangxi province. Photograph: Wu Zhigui/AP

 (More photos below)

Huge floods in southern China have killed at least 132 people and displaced 800,000, the government said today as the annual storm season picked up ferocity.

Local media showed images of people abandoning their homes in rubber dinghies in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, one of the worst-hit areas.

Many carried bundles of possessions salvaged from the waters that turned the streets into rivers.

More than 10 million people have lost property, been injured or suffered a cut in power or water supplies as a result of the week of torrential rain across Guangdong, Fujian, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Sichuan.

Many of these areas have gone from one extreme to another, according to the government. Earlier this year, south-east China endured its worst drought in living memory, but in the past week, some places have been inundated with three times the average rain for this period.

With thousands of houses destroyed and businesses and power lines put out of action in Guangdong and Fujian – the industrial hubs on the coast – the ministry of water resources estimated the economic damage at 14bn yuan (£400m).

The deaths occurred when people were washed into fast-flowing rivers that burst their banks, or when mudslides buried homes. As well as the confirmed dead, another 86 people were missing.

The emergency services have upgraded their threat assessment as the National Meteorological Centre warned of more downpours in the days ahead. "The scope and intensity of the rain have increased," it said on its website. Some areas are forecast to receive 200mm (nearly 8in) of rain.

The state council, China's cabinet, has dispatched a team to co-ordinate the relief effort. The People's Liberation Army has joined firefighters and police in a mass evacuation involving boats and helicopters. Transport links have been severed in many areas, due to road damage, flooded railway lines and the danger of travelling in fierce storms. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled. Newspapers have run pictures of elderly people being carried on the backs of their children or grandchildren, wading through the flood waters. Families have taken refuge in public buildings.

Food supplies – already hurt by the earlier drought – will take a further hit. The government estimates that 500,000 hectares (1.24m acres) of crops have been affected. Farmers have been salvaging what they can.

Southern China experiences flooding almost every summer, but the Beijing climate centre says extreme weather events have increased in recent years, with droughts becoming longer and rain falling in more intense and damaging bursts.

The Guardian (UK)

A man watches from a raft in a flooded neighborhood in downtown Guilin Photograph: AP

A young man wades through Nanchang's waterlogged streets with someone on his shoulders Photograph: Yuan Zheng/AP

Residents help to remove a car as floodwaters rise in Guilin Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

A resident crouches in the debris of his collapsed house after a landside in Taolin village Photograph: China Daily/Reuters

A rescue worker airlifts a child who was trapped after floodwaters hit the village of Jinxiu Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

A man on a submerged road throws a net to fish in the Yangtze River Photograph: Zhong Guilin/EPA

A rescuer swims to a bus submerged by floodwaters in Nanping Photograph: Liu Tao/EPA

Residents gather to watch as floodwater swells from the Li river in Guilin Photograph: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

A man wades through a waterlogged street in Yujiang county Photograph: Zhou Mi/AP

A team of rescuers set up an emergency dyke in Lianyungang Photograph: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Floodwater swells past houses in Xiqin township Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features/Rex Features

Residents walk on a bridge over an overflowing river at Xiqin town of Nanping Photograph: Reuters

Water floods houses in Laping village, Donglan Photograph: Keystone/Rex Features

People in Nanning attempt to drain the streets Photograph: Zuma Press/Rex Features

A woman mourns a family member killed by the flash floods in Nanping Photograph: AP