BEIJING - MASSIVE downpours in a mountainous region of south-west China have killed 22 people - many buried in landslides - leaving 45 missing and damaging thousands of homes, the government said on Monday.

Rains that have drenched Yunnan province since October 24 have triggered a series of landslides in the region, which borders on the Himalayas, affecting up to 410,000 people, the provincial government said on its website.

In the hardest hit area of Chuxiong prefecture, 16 people were confirmed dead and 38 missing while up to 25,000 people in the area's six counties were evacuated as of Sunday night, it said.

'We must ensure that those in disaster areas have food to eat, clothes to wear and a place to stay with clean water and medical aid', Chuxiong vice prefectural head Fa Yubing said in a statement.

'We must ensure that students can attend classes and that no epidemics break out in disaster areas'. More than 1,000 homes have collapsed and some 2,300 others were damaged in the mud and rock slides, with rescue teams and local officials frantically seeking to ascertain the exact number of dead and missing.

Roads, electricity and telecommunications have all been disrupted, while outlying regions have reported damage to schools and medical clinics.

With more rain forecast for the coming two days, rescue efforts will likely face continued difficulties, the government said.

The torrential rains have also hit the provincial capital of Kunming, where four people were reported dead and 1,000 people have been evacuated, it added.

The two other fatalities occurred in Lincang city.

Yunnan sits just to the south of Sichuan province, where an 8.0-magnitude earthquake left over 87,000 people dead or missing in May this year.

In September, 276 people were killed in northern China's Shanxi province when an industrial waste reservoir situated on a mountainside collapsed and engulfed a village in a sea of mud, rocks and mine debris. -- AFP