BEIJING (AP) — Heavy rains and flooding in northern China killed four people while others remain missing, officials said Monday, amid flood warnings and evacuations.
The victims were caught in a landslide in a rural part of Luanping county in the province of Hebei, which borders the capital, Beijing, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Eight remain missing. A local resident told the state-backed Beijing News that communications were down and he couldn’t reach his relatives.
Hebei officials had issued flood warnings on July 25 due to heavy rains. Beijing and the neighboring city of Tianjin followed with their own warnings on Monday.
In the district of Miyun, a suburban part of Beijing, floodwaters swept away parked cars in an apartment complex, according to CCTV footage. Officials told the Beijing Daily they had evacuated 4,015 people to avoid the floods and that there were no casualties as a water reservoir in the district recorded its highest water level since record-keeping began in 1951.
In Tianjin, some 5,600 people were also moved elsewhere for fear of floods, reported CCTV.
The meteorological bureau issued a warning Monday, saying that some places on the outskirts of Beijing could be hit with up to 25 cm (9.84 inches) of rain in one day.
The central government said in a statement it had sent 50 million yuan (about $7 million) to Hebei and dispatched a high-level team of emergency responders to aid the affected cities, which include Chengde, Baoding, and Zhangjiakou.
Beijing and Hebei suffered severe flooding in 2023.
