The death toll from flooding and landslides in southern China climbed to 38 on Thursday, state media reported, as torrential rains moved further west in the country.

Rain storm-triggered landslides struck five counties in Guangxi region on Wednesday, leaving 38 dead and another 14 people missing, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Heavy rainstorms started pounding the region on Monday, triggering the deadly landslides and forcing the evacuation of nearly 80,000 people, it quoted the local government as saying.

According to a previous notice on the Ministry of Civil Affairs website, more than 2.1 million people in Guangxi were affected by the disaster and more than 4,200 homes had been damaged.

But China's national meteorological centre said Thursday that heavy rainfall over the region was gradually coming to an end and was moving further west.

Summer rain storms annually deluge the region, often with devastating results leading to hundreds of fatalities.