BEIJING // The heaviest rain to hit Beijing for more than six decades has killed at least 10 people and left cars and buses submerged.
Another 10 storm deaths were reported elsewhere in China yesterday as the country braced itself for further downpours.
The rain on Saturday night knocked down trees in Beijing and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water in some areas.
In Tongzhou district on the capital's eastern outskirts, two people were killed by collapsed roofs, one person died after being struck by lightning and a fourth was electrocuted by a fallen power line as he helped neighbours escape, according to the government's Xinhua News Agency reported.
Another man in Beijing died when his car became trapped in deep water near the city centre, the newspaper Beijing News reported.
Elsewhere, six people were killed by rain-triggered landslides in Sichuan province in the west, Xinhua said, citing disaster officials. Four people died in Shanxi province in the north when their lorry was swept away by a rain-swollen river.
The government warned yesterday of more storms during the coming 24 hours in China's north-east, the port city of Tianjin, east of Beijing, Inner Mongolia in the north, Sichuan and bordering Yunnan province, and Guangdong and Hainan provinces in the south-east.
China suffers flooding and dozens of storm-related deaths during the rainy season every summer but such a heavy downpour in the relatively dry Beijing is unusual.
On Saturday, the capital's suburban Fangshan district received 460 millimetres of rain, breaking a record set in 1951, the weather bureau said.
Suburban Pinggu district got 100.3 millimetres of rain in just one hour, it added.
A flash flood in Fangshan stranded 104 primary school pupils and nine teachers at a military training site, Xinhua reported. It said they were in no immediate danger and that rescuers had delivered food to them.
At the Beijing airport, 229 domestic and 14 international flights were cancelled and more were delayed, the airport authority announced. The Beijing News said some 80,000 travellers were stranded at the airport by 11.30pm on Saturday.
The capital's skies were clear yesterday but the airport said another nine domestic flights had been cancelled and 50 delayed, in addition to four international flights cancelled and four delayed.
About 14,500 people were alsoevacuated on Saturday from parts of Beijing, Xinhua said. The Beijing News said they included 5,200 people who left areas in Fangshan that were vulnerable to landslides.
