Heavy rain, landslides kill more than 30 in northern China

Heavy rain, landslides kill more than 30 in northern China

Heavy rain killed more than 30 people and forced authorities to evacuate tens of thousands as swaths of northern China were lashed by torrential downpours that sparked landslides and flooding, state media said Tuesday.

Weather authorities have issued their second-highest rainstorm warning for the capital Beijing, neighbouring Hebei and Tianjin, as well as 10 other provinces, state news agency Xinhua said.

The rains are expected to last into Wednesday.

The heavy rainstorms had left 30 people dead in Beijing as of midnight Monday, Xinhua said, citing flood control authorities.

More than 80,000 people have been evacuated in the capital alone, according to state-run Beijing Daily.

The death toll was highest in Miyun, a northeastern suburb, it said.

"This time the rain was unusually heavy, it's not normally like this," a Miyun resident surnamed Jiang told AFP as water streamed down the road outside her house.

"The road is full of water so people aren't going to work," she said.

In Xinanzhuang village, AFP journalists saw murky water had submerged homes, cars and a road.

A local man in his sixties said he had never seen water levels so high.

- Record floods -

Nearby, torrents of water gushed from spillways in the Miyun Reservoir, which authorities said reached its highest levels since its construction in 1959.

Beijing's northern Huairou district and southwestern Fangshan were also badly affected, state media said.

Dozens of roads have been closed and over 130 villages have lost electricity, Beijing Daily said.

"Please pay attention to weather forecasts and warnings and do not go to risk areas unless necessary," the outlet said.

More than 10,000 people also evacuated their homes in the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, which saw major flash floods, according to state-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times.

And in Hebei province, which encircles Beijing, a landslide in a village killed eight people, with four still missing, state broadcaster CCTV said Tuesday.

The army was mobilised to help disaster relief operations, the channel said.

CCTV footage showed soldiers in orange life vests bringing supplies including bottled water, carrying people on stretchers, and clearing debris from roads.

Social media users online shared anxious accounts of being unable to reach family members in Hebei's mountainous Xinglong county.

Mudslides and floods forced more than 8,000 people to evacuate, while rescuers were still attempting to reach some villages that had "lost contact", China National Radio said Tuesday.

Local authorities have issued flash flood warnings through Tuesday evening, with the city of Chengde and surrounding areas under the highest alert, Hebei's radio and television station said.

- 'All-out efforts' -

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on authorities to plan for worst-case scenarios and relocate residents of flood-threatened areas.

The government and Communist Party have collectively allocated around 490 million yuan ($68 million) for disaster relief in nine regions hit by heavy rains, CCTV said.

Another 200 million yuan will be allocated for the capital.

In 2023, heavy rain killed more than 80 people across northern and northeastern China, including at least 29 people in Hebei where severe flooding destroyed homes and crops.

Some reports had suggested the province shouldered the burden of a government decision to divert the deluge away from Beijing.

Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat.

China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change and contribute to making extreme weather more frequent and intense.

But it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060.

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Originally published as Heavy rain, landslides kill more than 30 in northern China