State media warned last week that 130 million people would be affected by the extremely heavy rainfall across northern China.
Swathes of suburban Beijing and the surrounding areas have been inundated, with state media reporting 974,400 people have been evacuated in the capital and neighbouring Hebei province.
And to the west, a further 42,211 people have been evacuated in Shanxi province.
Authorities in the capital lifted the red alert for flooding on Wednesday morning “as the water flow in major rivers has gone below the warning mark”, Xinhua reported.
CLEAN-UP DRIVE
With rainfall easing, the focus has moved to the relief operation, with hundreds of rescue workers from the Chinese Red Cross being sent to hard-hit areas to clean up debris and help evacuate victims, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Two of the 11 people killed in the rains in Beijing died while “on duty during rescue and relief”, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Thirteen people were still missing, but another 14 have been found safe, the broadcaster said.
In neighbouring Hebei province, nine people were killed and six were missing, it said.
Another two casualties were reported in northeastern Liaoning province over the weekend.
President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for “every effort” to rescue those “lost or trapped” by the storm.
And visiting a relief work site in Beijing’s Mentougou – one of the capital’s hardest-hit areas – Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing urged “all-out” efforts to rescue those still missing.
“The top priority of the current work is to save people’s lives, race against the time to search for the people missing or trapped and minimise casualties,” Zhang said, according to state news agency Xinhua.
The country is now on alert for the arrival of Typhoon Khanun, the sixth such storm of the year, as it nears China’s east coast.
Source: CNA
