The death toll in central China’s unprecedented flash floods triggered after the heaviest rainfall in 1,000 years has reached 33 with eight people missing, while officials raced to evacuate patients and medics stuck in waterlogged hospitals in the flood-hit Zhangzhou city.

The torrential rain has affected about three million people in Henan province and a total of 376,000 local residents have been relocated to safe places, the provincial emergency management department said.