Zhuozhou hit by flood overflow from capital

Deadly rains that pummelled Beijing in recent days were the heaviest since records began 140 years ago as China yesterday dispatched 9,000 rescue workers to Zhuozhou, a city of over 600,000 residents southwest of Beijing, where the tail end of Typhoon Doksuri continued to wreak havoc on swathe of the city twice the size of Paris.

Zhuozhou is in Hebei, which has borne the brunt of the worst storms to hit the north in over a decade, killing least 20 people.

Hebei has declared a state of emergency as rainfall averaged 355 millimeters since Saturday, the heaviest since at least 2012. More than 134,000 Zhuozhou residents have been affected, with over one sixth of the city's population evacuated.

At the confluence of several rivers, Zhuozhou is one of the hardest hit cities in Hebei as floodwaters migrated downstream,waterlogging residential areas more than twice the size of Paris, and affecting nearly 650 hectares of agricultural land.

The public security bureau said the city faced water shortages and a partial power outage, adding that it urgently needed rafts, life jackets and emergency supplies. Residents said waters rose up to four meters.

More rescue teams are rushing over from Henan and Shanxi.

Many Zhuozhou residents took to social media to vent, with one Weibo user saying: "We are taking on floodwater discharges from Beijing, so they should provide us with rescue and equipment, but there has been nothing."

As floodwaters flow south, Gaobeidian has evacuated 113,000 residents, as well as opened reservoirs to trap the excess water.