Floods, mudslides kill two in northwestern China city

Mudslides and flooding in the northwestern Chinese city of Xian killed two people and 16 others are missing, state-owned China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Saturday.

The casualties come after heavy rainfall and floods devastated many parts of China, with some extreme weather following in the wake of Typhoon Doksuri, which made landfall in southern Fujian province almost three weeks ago.

Two houses in a village in Xian have been washed away and infrastructure such as roads, bridges and power supply facilities has been damaged, CCTV said.

Search and rescue teams and river bank reinforcement personnel have been sent to the area, it said.

The Qinling Mountains in Xian will continue to experience extreme weather conditions, which will lead to soil erosion and possibly further mudslides, the broadcaster said.

In the capital Beijing and the northeastern city of Harbin, some trains were suspended on Saturday due to heavy rain and strong winds, CCTV said.

In southwestern Guangxi on Friday, heavy rainfall in the city of Nanning led to urban flooding, forcing rush hour commuters to drive vehicles and motorcycles through waterlogged roads, CCTV said.

Local authorities set up cordons to allow drainage work on some roads, while the city dispatched nearly 3,900 police to help.

In the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a flash flood swept away a road, trapping a number of people on Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday, adding that more than 40 people were rescued.