Heavy rains, storms in Beijing claim 11 lives; 27 missing

Chinese media CCTV reported Tuesday at least 11 people lost their lives with 27 missing after heavy rains and storms inundated roads and neighbourhoods in Beijing with water and mud, making it one of the heaviest rainfalls in the history of the city.

A former super typhoon Doksuri first hit the Fujian province Friday after first scything through the Philippines.

Heavy rains began pummelling Beijing and its surrounding areas Saturday, with nearly the average rainfall for the entire month of July dumped on the capital in just 40 hours.

Swathes of suburban Beijing remain badly hit by the rains — some of the city’s heaviest in years.

CCTV reported the rains had killed at least 11 people and that 27 were missing.

"Among the dead were two workers killed on duty during rescue and relief efforts," it reported.

“More than 100,000 people across the city deemed at risk had been evacuated,” the Global Times reported.

One local elderly man told AFP he had not seen flooding this bad since July 2012, when 79 people were killed and tens of thousands evacuated.

"This time it's much bigger than that," he said, declining to give his name.

"It's a natural disaster, there’s nothing you can do," a man in his 20s told AFP.

"[We] still have to work hard and rebuild," he added.

About a dozen emergency vehicles, including trucks with water tanks and bulldozers, were spotted on the road between Shijingshan and Mentougou districts.

Parts of the road were still closed off and workers in bright orange raincoats used shovels to clear the road.

Xi Jinping orders rescue

President Xi Jinping Tuesday called for "every effort" to rescue those "lost or trapped" by the rains.

Local authorities "must do a good job in treating the injured and comforting the families of victims, and minimise casualties," CCTV quoted Xi as saying.

"They must properly relocate affected people, work quickly to repair damaged transportation, communication, and electricity infrastructure, and restore the order of normal production and life as soon as possible," he added.

"Xi Jinping emphasised that it is currently the critical period for flood control in late July and early August," state media said.

Live images from CCTV Tuesday morning showed a row of buses half submerged in floodwater in Beijing’s southwest Fangshan neighbourhood.

Around 150,000 households in Mentougou were without running water, the local newspaper Beijing Daily said, with 45 water tankers dispatched to offer emergency supplies.

Local media Monday published footage of chaotic scenes aboard high-speed rail trains stranded on tracks for as long as 30 hours, with passengers complaining they had run out of food and water.

Parts of neighbouring Hebei province remain under red alert for rainstorms, with authorities warning of potential flash floods and landslides.

"The city activated a flood control reservoir on Monday for the first time since it was built in 1998," the Beijing Daily said.

And in Handan, Hebei province, rescuers lifted by crane reached a man trapped atop his car by floodwaters, lifting him to safety before the vehicle was flipped over and washed away by the current.

China has been experiencing extreme weather and posting record temperatures this summer, events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.