provinces

Authorities warn of intensifying conditions and heightened disaster risks in the coming days.

A landslide triggered by unusually heavy rain has killed four people and left eight others missing in northern China’s Hebei province, state media report, as authorities issue flood warnings in capital Beijing and at least 11 provinces.

The landslide in a village near Chengde city was “due to heavy rainfall”, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Monday.

Authorities relocated more than 4,400 people as relentless rain continued to pound the suburban area of Miyun in Beijing, causing flash floods and landslides, affecting many villages, CCTV said.

Images circulated on China’s WeChat app showed areas of Miyun where cars and trucks were floating on a flooded road, and residential buildings were submerged. Electricity cuts also affected more than 10,000 people in the area, CCTV said.

Northern China has seen record precipitation in recent years, exposing densely populated cities, including Beijing, to flood risks. Some scientists link the increased rainfall in China’s usually arid north to global warming.

The Central Meteorological Observatory said heavy rainfall would continue to drench northern China over the next three days. The Water Resources Ministry has issued targeted flood warnings in 11 provinces and regions.

Beijing issued its highest-level flood alert on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency said. The national emergency management department said it dispatched a team to inspect the “severe” flooding in Hebei, which encircles Beijing.

In Shanxi province, videos from state media showed roads filled with water and submerged vegetation, including crops and trees. The province, home to China’s historic city of Xian, also issued flash flood disaster risk warnings on Monday.

The storms are part of the broader pattern of extreme weather across China due to the East Asian monsoon, which has caused disruptions in the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission said on Monday it was urgently arranging 50 million yuan ($7m) to support Hebei, Xinhua reported. The funds would be used to repair damaged roads and bridges, water conservancy embankments, schools and hospitals in the disaster area.

Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heatwaves.

Flash floods in eastern China’s Shandong province killed two people and left 10 missing this month. A landslide on a highway in Sichuan province this month also killed five people after it swept several cars down a mountainside.

June 23 (UPI) — At least 13 people were killed and 57 injured in Ukraine, half of them in Kyiv, after Russian forces attacked the capital and other targets in the eastern half of the country with hundreds of drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, officials said Monday.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a social media update that six people were killed when a missile struck and badly damaged a building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, but that the rescue operation was still underway and there might be more casualties buried under the rubble.

“A terrible picture in the Shevchenko district. Extensive damage to a five-story building. Rescuers, medics, and municipal services are working at the scene. The blast wave also damaged the apartments of the 25-story residential building opposite. Ten people were rescued from it. Among them, a child and a pregnant woman,” said Klitschko.

Another 22 people were injured, 12 of them hospitalized, in attacks on residential and non-residential buildings in five other districts of the capital, he added.

The governor of the region, Mykola Kalashnyk, said one person was killed in Bilotserkivka district, southwest of Kyiv, and four were injured, two of whom were admitted to the hospital. Residential targets were hit in Boryspil and Bila Tserkva, where a medical facility and a hotel were also destroyed.

The town of Bucha, just northwest of Kyiv, one of the first Ukrainian settlements overrun by Russian forces and scene of the U.N.-documented execution of at least 73 civilians and other suspected war crimes after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, also came under attack, damaging several houses and vehicles.

In neighboring Chernihiv province to the northeast, which borders both Russia and Belarus, at least three people were killed and 11 injured, including four teenagers, in missile and drone strikes on Chernihiv, the regional capital, and four other districts, according to Chernihiv Gov. Viacheslav Chaus.

In Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian provinces partly or fully controlled by Russian forces, Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on Telegram that two people had been killed in Siversk, 18 miles east of the city of Slovyansk, and in Myrne, east of Pokrovsk, with five more injured.

In part-Russian-occupied Kherson, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported via social media that one person had been killed and six injured in Russian drone, artillery and airstrikes on Kherson city and several other communities, damaging seven apartment buildings, 14 houses, a gas pipeline and other civilian targets.

The Ukrainian Air Force said on its official account on Telegram that of 368 incoming attack drones, ballistic and cruise missiles, mostly targeting Kyiv, air defenses managed to down all but 14.