President calls for all-out search and rescue efforts

Continuous downpours have lashed Beijing since Saturday, leaving at least 11 dead and 13 missing, according to local flood control headquarters.

Six of the deceased are from the mountainous Mentougou and Fangshan districts, the worst-affected areas in Beijing, the headquarters said.

As of 6 am on Tuesday, Beijing recorded average precipitation of 257.9 millimeters. Mentougou and Fangshan received precipitation of about 470 mm and 415 mm, respectively, it said.

The average annual precipitation in the capital, however, is only about 600 mm.

To date, around 127,000 residents across the city have been relocated due to the rainfall, the headquarters said.

The lingering rainfall forced Beijing authorities to put a flood detention reservoir into operation on Monday. It is the first time that the Zhaitang reservoir has been used to detain floodwater since it was constructed for the purpose in 1998.

Torrential rains have also battered North China's Hebei province since Saturday, leaving nine dead and six missing, local authorities said.

Flood control authorities in Hebei and Tianjin have also resorted to rarely used flood detention areas to cope with the deluge.

On Tuesday, five flood detention areas in the Haihe River basin were put into use, amid the constant and accelerated influx of rainwater into water bodies in the basin, according to the Haihe River Water Conservancy Commission.

The flooding was so severe in Tianjin, where the trunk of the Haihe is located, that local authorities upgraded the emergency response for flood control from Level III to Level I, the highest in the country's four-tier emergency response mechanism, at 1 am on Tuesday.

Hebei has lifted the sluice gates of the Langouwa flood detention area, in a move to relieve flood control pressures in its downstream areas along the Daqing River.

According to the National Meteorological Center, Lincheng county in Hebei received the largest cumulative precipitation of 994.6 mm among all areas affected by the rainfall, which started on Saturday.

The use of Langouwa, which has an area of 228 square kilometers and a capacity to store 323 million cubic meters of water, will help mitigate the impact of flooding in the Xiong'an New Area, the Ministry of Water Resources said in a media release on Tuesday.

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houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn