At least 60 people have lost their lives in northern China over the past week due to torrential rain, with around eighteen people still missing in Chengde.

One of the worst incidents occurred in a care home in Beijing’s Miyun district, where 31 elderly residents died during the devastating floods- the deadliest the capital has seen in years.

Heavy rainstorms began a week ago, reaching their peak on Monday across Beijing and neighbouring regions.

Miyun was particularly hard-hit, receiving up to 573.5 mm of rainfall, almost the city’s average annual total of 600 mm in a matter of days. Local media described the deluge as "extremely destructive."

In Hebei province, which borders the capital, 16 fatalities were reported due to the same weather system.

Elsewhere in Hebei, a landslide in a village north of the reservoir killed eight people on Monday, with four others still unaccounted for.

In Chengde, a city just outside Beijing, eight people were confirmed dead and 18 remain missing. The deaths were recorded in villages within the Xinglong area, close to Miyun and only 25 kilometres from the Miyun reservoir- northern China’s largest.

The reservoir saw unprecedented water levels and inflows during the storm. On Sunday alone, water surged into the dam at a peak rate of 6,550 cubic metres per second - the equivalent of about 2.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools each second.

The disaster has reignited concerns about the impact of climate change, with meteorologists linking the extreme rainfall to shifting climate patterns. Chinese officials have acknowledged that the severe weather has disrupted economic activity, citing it as a contributing factor to a slowdown in factory output.

Copied