NANNING -- Floods have caused at least three deaths in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, local civil affairs department said on Sunday.

More than ten cities and counties in Guangxi were hit by floods in the last three days, according to the statement made by the disaster relief office of the Guangxi Regional Department of Civil Affairs.

About 592 people were displaced, and 27,800 people were affected, it said. Direct economic loss totaled 28 million yuan (about $4.26 million).

Heavy rain will pound parts of southwest China in the next three days, China's national observatory forecast on Sunday.

The observatory issued a blue alert, the least serious of the nation's four-tier warning system, for torrential weather as hails and thunderstorm are expected in some parts of Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Guangdong provinces on Sunday and Monday.