HEFEI, Oct. 23 -- Eleven cities in east China's Anhui Province suffered from drought due to high temperatures and little rainfall since September, the provincial emergency management department said Tuesday.

As of Monday, a total of 412,700 hectares of crops were affected by the lingering drought, causing direct economic losses of 1.61 billion yuan (about 227.5 million U.S. dollars), it said.

The meteorological department said the drought will continue to batter the province in the next week.