A woman wades through a flooded street following a heavy rain in Beijing Saturday, July 21, 2012. China's government says the heaviest rains to hit Beijing in six decades. The torrential downpour Saturday night left low-lying streets flooded and knocked down trees. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
A woman wades through a flooded street following a heavy rain in Beijing Saturday, July 21, 2012. China's government says the heaviest rains to hit Beijing in six decades. The torrential downpour Saturday night left low-lying streets flooded and knocked down trees. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
A taxi driver walks away after his car was stranded in a flooded street following a heavy rain in Beijing Saturday, July 21, 2012. China's government says the heaviest rains to hit Beijing in six decades. The torrential downpour Saturday night left low-lying streets flooded and knocked down trees. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT
In this photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, streets are waterlogged in Gaoqiao township of Dongxing District in Neijiang, southwest China's Sichuan Province Sunday, July 22, 2012. On Sunday, the government warned of more storms over the following 24 hours for China's northeast, the port city of Tianjin east of Beijing, Inner Mongolia in the north, Sichuan and neighboring Yunnan province, and Guangdong and Hainan provinces in the southeast. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Lan Zitao) NO SALES
BEIJING (AP) ? Officials have raised the death toll to at least 37 in the heaviest rainstorm to hit Beijing in six decades, and dozens of other storm deaths have been reported elsewhere in China.
The rain Saturday night knocked down trees in Beijing and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water in some areas. A statement from the city government late Sunday said 25 people drowned, six were killed when houses collapsed, one was hit by lightning and five were electrocuted by fallen power lines.
The official China Daily newspaper reported Monday that rain and flooding caused damages of at least 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion), with 60,000 people evacuated from their homes.
The official Globe Times said Monday that it was the heaviest rainstorm in the capital in 61 years.
It was the heaviest on record in Fangshan district in the southwest of the city, which received 460 millimeters (18.4 inches) of rain Saturday, according to the weather bureau. The agency also said suburban Pinggu district got 100.3 millimeters (4 inches) of rain in one hour.
A flash flood in Fangshan stranded 104 primary school students and nine teachers at a military training site, Xinhua said. They were taken to safety.
Elsewhere, six people were killed by rain-triggered landslides in Sichuan province in the west, Xinhua News Agency said, citing disaster officials.
Four people died in Shanxi province in the north when their truck was swept away by a rain-swollen river. In neighboring Shaanxi province, state media said at least eight people died and 17 were missing after heavy rains hit.
China suffers flooding and dozens of storm-related deaths every summer during its rainy season, but such a heavy downpour in relatively dry Beijing is unusual.
The capital's skies were clear Monday, with traffic back to normal. The city's main airport was operating normally after hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed over the weekend.
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