Floods in southwestern China have killed at least seven people in Sichuan province, state television CCTV reported on Wednesday, after heavy rains killed dozens in the country’s north.
CCTV footage shows people being swept away by the current as they struggle to keep their heads above water.
In Beijing, the death toll from flooding rose to 33, including five rescue workers. Another 18 people are still missing, at a time when much of the north of the country is under threat of exceptionally heavy rains.
Days of torrential rain battered mountainous areas on the outskirts of China’s capital, causing the collapse of 59,000 houses and the flooding of more than 15,000 hectares of farmland, according to the local government.
Dozens of roads and more than 100 bridges were damaged, Xia Linmao, deputy mayor of Beijing, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Other parts of China also experienced heavy flooding, partly due to the impact of Typhoon Doksuri.
Hebei province in north China has suffered some of the worst flooding in the region.
Flooding in the city of Zhuozhou began to subside on Saturday, allowing some of the 125,000 evacuated residents to return to their homes.
Other areas of the country are experiencing extreme heat waves and drought, threatening the health of residents and the fall harvest. Heavy rains have hit northern China since late July, disrupting the lives of millions of people.
Six people were killed and four were missing in the city of Shulan in the northeastern Jilin province, which suffered five straight days of rain, turning the streets into rivers. Heilongjiang province has also seen rivers overflow.
The deadliest and most destructive floods in China’s recent history occurred in 1998, when 4,150 people died, mostly along the Yangtze River.
In 2021, more than 300 people died in the central province of Henan. Record rains flooded the provincial capital of Zhengzhou on July 20 of that year, turning streets into raging rivers and inundating at least part of the metro system.
Source: TSF
