Care home residents among 60 killed in China flooding

Extreme rain and flooding across northern China have killed 60 people, more than half of them at a care home for the elderly

- 

Extreme rainand flooding across northern China have killed 60 people, more than half of them at a care home for the elderly in a suburb of Beijing, which has grappled with its deadliest flood disaster in years.

In Beijing, 44 people died over the past week, the city’s deputy mayor Xia Linmao said at a press conference on Thursday.

At least 31 others were missing in the capital ‘and neighbouring Hebei province, authorities said.

Torrential rain began a week ago and peaked around Beijing and surrounding provinces on Monday.

In the space of a few days the hilly Miyun district in the north east of the capital saw rainfall of up to 573.5 mm (22.6 inches).

By comparison, the average annual precipitation in Beijing is around 600 mm.

Thirty-one people died at a nursing home in Miyun's Taishitun, a town sitting immediately upstream from the Miyun reservoir and about a 90-minute drive from central Beijing.

Authorities were lerted about people trapped in the facility early on Monday, but rescue efforts were hampered by torrents of water in the streets, said Miyun’s top official, Yu Weiguo.