14 dead in floods in northeastern China

Beijin, August 7

Fourteen people were reported to have died over the weekend in the Chinese city of Shulan due to flooding caused by Typhoon Doksuri.

Northeastern China, Beijing and Hebei province have seen heavy rainfall and floods since the typhoon made landfall in southern Fujian province two weeks ago.

The deaths in Shulan, in northeastern Jilin province, add to the more than 20 who died last week in Beijing and Hebei.

Authorities have yet to provide an overall death toll for the entire country.

Three officials were among the dead in Shulan, including a vice mayor of the city of about 587,000 people, state media reported late on Sunday.

Water levels in the city have receded to safe levels and emergency response efforts have been mobilised to relocate residents and repair infrastructure. Power had been restored to 14,305 homes, state media reported.

Regional authorities said sections of the Songhua, the main river in northeastern China, and the Nenjiang tributary remained at dangerously high levels.

Power was also restored to many flood-hit areas of Beijing and in Hebei province. Efforts to resume power in the northeastern provinces Jilin, Heilongjiang and Liaoning were ongoing, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Reuters