CHANGSHA / BEIJING - One person was killed and seven others remain missing as of noon after a landslide in a county in Central China's Hunan province on Sunday, according to the local publicity department.

The landslide occurred in Douxi village, Xinhuang Dong autonomous county of Huaihua city, at around 4 am Sunday. Four houses collapsed.

All other people at the site have been relocated to safe areas, and rescue work is underway.

The National Meteorological Center renewed an orange alert for rainstorms on Sunday morning, forecasting heavy downpours and rainstorms in Heilongjiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Hainan from Sunday to Monday afternoon

Rainstorms hit many parts of Hunan from Saturday to Sunday morning, according to the local meteorological authority. The province issued warnings for rainstorms and flooding on Sunday, predicting that storms will hit northern and central parts of the province in the coming week and disaster risks will be high.

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Also on Sunday, the China Meteorological Administration raised the emergency response to rainstorms from level III to level II.

The renewed response came in the wake of forecasts of continuous heavy downpours in regions along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the following week.

China has a four-tier emergency response system for rainstorms, with level I being the most severe.

In the meantime, the National Meteorological Center renewed an orange alert for rainstorms on Sunday morning, forecasting heavy downpours and rainstorms in Heilongjiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Hainan from Sunday to Monday afternoon.

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Some parts of these regions will experience short-term heavy rainfall, with hourly precipitation reaching 70 mm or more, accompanied by thunderstorms and gales.

Local governments have been urged to make proper preparations and fulfill their responsibilities accordingly.

China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

Meanwhile, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters dispatched a working team to Hunan province to provide disaster relief instructions, the Ministry of Emergency Management said Saturday.

The Ministry of Emergency Management urged efforts to promptly restore the roads damaged by flooding and make proper arrangements for resettling those affected by the disaster.

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The ministry also asked local authorities to take precautions against potential flash floods and geological disasters caused by intense rainfall.