Increased rainfall in 60 years leaves 37 dead in Beijing

The heavy rains that hit Beijing on Saturday left 37 dead, said Sunday the state agency Xinhua, and ten other people died elsewhere in China . Saturday's storm was considered the strongest to hit the Chinese capital in six decades. According to Xinhua, the rain brought down trees and water, which in places reached the waist, left dozens of cars and buses stranded. In the district of Tongzhou in east Beijing, two people died in a fall from a roof, one to be struck by lightning, one electrocuted by a high voltage cable while trying to help neighbors and a man who was trapped in his car in the center of the city drowned. The government warned that more storms were forecast for Sunday night and Monday in northeastern China, including Beijing and the port city of Tianjin, and the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangdong, Hainan and Inner Mongolia. According to Xinhua on Saturday six people died in landslides caused by rain in Sichuan province and four others lost their lives when a river overflowed, dragging the truck they were traveling. In Fangshan District, near Beijing, the weather service recorded 460 mm of rainfall on Saturday, the highest since 1951, in suburban Pinggu, rainfall reached 100.3 mm. In total, 14,500 people were removed from homes in risk areas at the international airport of Beijing, 229 domestic flights and 14 international flights were canceled and there were about 80,000 travelers stranded at the airport on Saturday night.