Dead pigs are seen drifting after a farm flooded by heavy rainstorms in Liuye Township in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on June 16, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

NANNING - A total of 16,000 pigs drown at a farm flooded by heavy rainstorms in Southwest China, leaving authorities with the challenging task of sterilizing the carcasses.

The flooding occurred on Sunday morning. According to Wang Lin, the manager of the pig farm, it happened too fast for them to evacuate the pigs.

The pig farm was located in Liuye township in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, where precipitation in the last 20 hours has reached 390 mm, with rain battering the region since last week.