Hailstorms had killed 29 people across China from March to April 20, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs late Friday. Hailstorms had stricken 270 county-level areas across 24 provincial regions since March this year, Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying. As of 2:00 p.m. Friday, hailstorms had affected 3.072 million people, and resulted in direct economic losses of 3.38 billion yuan (536.7 million U.S. dollars).