WORLD Beijing’s record rainfall: 33 dead, 18 still missing

BEIJING—Thirty-three people have been confirmed dead and 18 are still missing after Beijing’s heaviest rains on record, officials said Wednesday.

China’s capital has been hit by record downpours in recent weeks, damaging infrastructure and deluging swaths of the city’s suburbs and surrounding areas.

Floods in China’s southwestern Sichuan province also killed seven people on Wednesday, state media reported.

Authorities in the capital said on Wednesday that 33 had died in the recent bad weather in Beijing, mainly by flooding and buildings collapsing, almost three times the figure given by officials on Tuesday last week.

“I would like to express my deep condolences to those who died in the line of duty and the unfortunate victims,” Xia Linmao, Beijing’s vice-mayor, told a news conference, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Scores have died in the floods across northern China, with Beijing officials saying on Friday 147 deaths or disappearances last month were caused by natural disasters.

Of those, 142 were caused by flooding or geological disasters, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said.

In Hebei province, which neighbours Beijing, 15 were reported to have died and 22 were missing.

And in northeastern Jilin, 14 died and one person was reported missing on Sunday.

Further north in Heilongjiang, state media reported dozens of rivers had water levels rise above “warning markers” in recent days.

“I still feel scared when I recall the recent flooding,” Zheng Xiaokang, a police officer from the province’s Jiangxi village, told the state- run Xinhua News Agency.

“In the face of the persistent downpour and rising river water, the consequences would have been devastating had we not managed to timely evacuate the villagers,” Zheng said.

Millions of people have been hit by extreme weather events and prolonged heatwaves around the globe in recent weeks, events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.

CCTV said seven people died in Sichuan on Wednesday and four others were rescued from the water, adding that “local public security, fire and other departments are continuing to carry out search and rescue efforts”.

The incident occurred at about 10 am near an embankment southwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, where “more than 10” people were swept away by an unexpected tide of water, state media said.

The victims, who were reportedly taking pictures when the torrent struck, were tourists visiting a popular site.

Video shared by CCTV showed several people struggling to keep their heads above water as a powerful torrent pushed them downstream and bystanders shouted from the water’s edge.

The cause of the deluge of water was not immediately clear.

Meteorological authorities in the nearby city of Qionglai continued to issue a yellow warning for rain at 10:40 am on Wednesday, anticipating possible precipitation of “more than 50 mm” over the next six hours in certain parts of the administrative district. AFP

TOKYO—Airlines canceled several hundred flights and authorities issued warnings Wednesday as tropical storm Khanun barreled off Japan’s southern coast towards South Korea.

The storm, which has been downgraded from typhoon status, has already prompted South Korea to begin the evacuation of tens of thousands camping at the World Scout Jamboree, which was earlier hit by a heatwave.

On Wednesday, about 16,000 households were without power as heavy rain pounded Japan’s southern island of Kyushu.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of torrential rain and the “surging” risk of “life-threatening mudslides and flooding” in the island’s Kagoshima region.

The US military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center has designated the system a tropical storm with gusts of up to 130 kph.

Japan Airlines on Wednesday canceled 252 flights, affecting some 25,000 passengers, a spokeswoman told AFP. All Nippon Airways scrapped 96 flights, hitting over 10,000 people, a spokeswoman said. The weather system, which killed at

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least two people in the Okinawa region last week, has already forced organisers to scale down and move inside Wednesday ceremonies marking the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

Japan’s “shinkansen” bullet train service was also halted in part of its southern route, while many other local commuter and express trains were canceled, Kyushu Railway said in a statement.

In South Korea, where Khanun was expected to make landfall Thursday, nearly 80 flights at 10 airports and dozens of ferry services were suspended.

Seoul has raised its crisis alert level to its highest level, with the typhoon expected to have “a direct impact on the whole country” from Wednesday to Friday, said the interior ministry.

The presidential office was working around the clock on emergency typhoon watch, Yonhap news agency reported.

“We will do our best to respond to the typhoon, so that no human casualties occur, with thorough control and pre-emptive evacuation for the highrisk areas such as underground tunnels and riverbanks,” Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said Tuesday. AFP