China said Thursday that a total of 44 people were killed and nine unaccounted for following heavy rains that soaked swathes of the capital Beijing since last week. “As of midday on July 31, some 44 people have died and nine are still missing as a result of the disasters across the whole of Beijing,” top city official Xia Linmao told a news conference. “Between July 23 and 29, Beijing suffered extreme rainfall,” he said, adding they had caused “significant casualties and (other) losses”.
