20 Killed, 27 Missing After Extreme Rainfall Cause Flood in China
- Ran Mengjun/ AP Photo
Beijing – The extreme rainfall hit Beijing as capital city of China, causing at least 20 people dead and 27 others missing, on Tuesday. Floods destroyed roads in the capital, uprooted trees and knocked out power.
Thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in schools and other public buildings in Beijing's suburbs, and in nearby cities such as Tianjin and Zhuozhou.
The floods took the Chinese capital by surprise, as Beijing usually experiences dry summers.
Banjir akibat hujan deras di Wangbu, Yingde, Provinsi Guangdong, China
- ANTARA/Reuters/stringer
Other regions, especially in the southern part of China have also experienced flooding and unusually severe summers that have caused many deaths.
Muddy water flowing down the streets washed away cars in the Mentougou district on the western edge of Beijing. "Cars parked on the street were washed away," said resident Liu Shuanbao.
"Some cars parked behind my apartment building disappeared in just one minute," Emergency workers also used bulldozers to clear the streets.
"Neither officials nor ordinary citizens expected the rain to come down so heavily," said another Mentougou resident, Wu Changpo.
"There were many landslides and villages were flooded. I cried many times seeing this."
As information, authorities are also searching for 27 missing people, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Another nine deaths were also reported in Hebei province, which surrounds the capital.
In Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, about 125,000 people from high-risk areas were moved to shelters.
On the other hand, Chinese President Xi Jinping has issued orders to local governments to rescue those trapped and minimize casualties and property damage.
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