Beijing, Oct 11 (IANS): Natural disasters affected about 94.94 million people in China between January to September this year, with 792 dead or missing, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

About 5.26 million people were relocated to safe places during the period, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying.

Destroying houses and damaging crops, natural disasters caused direct economic losses of 286.4 billion yuan ($44 billion) in the period.

Extreme weather-triggered disasters caused heavy losses.

China experienced extremely heavy rainfall 39 times in the first three quarters, leading to floods and road waterlogging, especially in the provinces of Henan and Shaanxi, according to the Ministry.

Earthquakes, typhoons, droughts, snow disasters and forest fires also caused damage to various extents.

However, the overall impact of natural disasters over the past nine months was smaller than during the same period over the past five years, with the affected population and direct economic losses down 31 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.