Heavy rains near Beijing and in northern and northeastern China have killed two people and forced thousands to evacuate, after authorities warned that the rains would continue and could cause landslides and floods, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Two people have died and two others are missing in Hebei province, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported this morning. A record 145 mm of rainfall in one hour was recorded overnight in the industrial city of Baoding.
China's Ministry of Water Resources has issued a flood warning for 11 provinces and regions, including Beijing and neighboring Hebei province. The hardest hit were villages in the Miyun district of the Chinese capital, where more than 3,000 people were evacuated, Radio Beijing reported.
On Saturday, Chinese authorities issued a landslide warning after Baoding received its annual rainfall. A meteorological station in the city recorded 540 mm of rain in eight hours, more than the annual average of about 500 mm. According to CCTV, more than 46,000 people were affected by the rain, of whom 4,655 were forced to evacuate.
In recent years, northern China has seen record rainfall, putting densely populated areas such as Beijing at risk of flooding. Some experts say the increased rainfall in the normally dry north of China is due to global warming. The storms are part of a general pattern of extreme events resulting from the East Asian monsoon, which is causing difficulties for the world's second-largest economy.