China rodents spark disease fears

Residents of Hunan province have killed millions of the mice Enlarge Image

Severe flooding in central China has brought a mass invasion of mice, raising fears of outbreaks of disease.

The floods forced about two billion mice from islands in Dongting Lake in Hunan province, local officials said.

Health authorities have been sent to three cities on the lake and crops have been destroyed by the field mice.

Flooding and landslides have killed at least 360 people across southern and central China in recent weeks, with more rain expected, officials say.

Residents' revenge

The rodent rampage began on 23 June, when the flooded Yangtze River raised water levels in Dongting Lake, forcing the mice from their holes on islands in the lake, China's state-run news agency Xinhua said on Monday.

In pictures: China floods

They have invaded 22 counties around the lake since then.

But Li Junhua, from Hunan Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told Xinhua there had not yet been any reports of disease caused by the field mice.

Local authorities in counties including Yiyang, Yuanjiang, Junshan and Huarong are building walls and ditches to keep the mice at bay.

Residents are also taking matters into their own hands, killing more than 2.3m of the rodents using clubs, shovels and poison, Xinhua said.

But in the town of Lujiao, at least 1000 cats have died after eating mice that had been killed with poison.