At least 20 people have died in the Chinese capital Beijing and the neighboring province of Hebei during exceptionally heavy rainfall. Chinese state media reported at least 11 deaths in Beijing on Tuesday. There were nine other victims in the province of Hebei, which surrounds the capital. More than a dozen people were still missing.
The extreme rainfall is a result of tropical storm Doksuri. The weather office in the Chinese capital had announced the highest rain warning level since Saturday evening and advised the population not to go outside. Since then it has rained almost continuously.
Videos showed streets turning into raging rivers of mud and parked cars being swept away by the floodwaters. A bridge collapsed under the water masses. The rural outskirts of the capital were particularly hard hit. As the Chinese “People’s Daily” reported, more than 100,000 people were taken to safer areas of the city. More than half a million people are said to have been affected by the storms in Hebei.
“Doksuri” had previously struck the Chinese coastal province of Fujian as a typhoon and had weakened to a tropical storm on its way inland.
In China, heavy rains and floods occur again and again in the summer months, claiming many lives.
