Heavy rains have claimed at least 30 lives in Beijing, with over 80,000 residents forced to evacuate due to widespread flooding, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday.
The capital and surrounding provinces—including Hebei, Jilin, and Shandong—have been battered by relentless downpours since the beginning of the week. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the death toll in Beijing rose as of midnight Monday, with the hardest-hit areas identified as Miyun, Huairou, and Fangshan districts.
Beijing Daily, a local state-run media outlet, said the “continuous extreme heavy rainfall caused major disasters,” closing dozens of roads and knocking out electricity in more than 130 villages.
Authorities have urged the public to heed weather alerts and avoid dangerous areas. President Xi Jinping has called for emergency preparedness and immediate relocation efforts in flood-threatened zones, stressing the need to plan for worst-case scenarios.
In nearby Hebei province, a landslide near Chengde killed four people, with eight still unaccounted for. Meanwhile, flash floods in Shandong earlier this month left two dead and 10 missing, while a highway landslide in Sichuan killed five.
China, despite being the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases, is also a leading force in renewable energy. The country has committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2060 as it grapples with increasingly severe climate events, including record-breaking heatwaves and deadly summer floods.
AFP