Four dead, eight missing in China landslide after heavy rain

Flood-affected area after heavy rains at Xin'anzhuang village in Miyun district.[AFP]

A landslide triggered by unusually heavy rain killed four people and left eight others missing in northern China's Hebei province, as downpours force thousands to evacuate.

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

The national emergency management department said it dispatched a team to inspect the "severe" flooding in Hebei, which encircles the capital Beijing.

Swathes of northern China have been inundated in recent days, with record rain in Hebei killing two people on Saturday, state media said.

In Fuping County, more than 4,600 people were evacuated over the weekend, it said.

And in neighbouring Shanxi province, one person was rescued and 13 were missing after a bus accident, CCTV reported.

Footage from the broadcaster showed roads in Shanxi and a crop field submerged in rushing water on Sunday.

In Beijing, more than 3,000 people in suburban Miyun district were evacuated due to torrential rains.

The area's reservoir "recorded its largest inflow flood" since it was built more than six decades ago, state media reported.

On Monday in Mujiayu, a town just south of the reservoir, AFP journalists saw power lines swept away by muddy currents while military vehicles and ambulances ploughed through flooded roads.

A river had burst its banks, sweeping away trees, while fields of crops were inundated with flood water.

Authorities in the capital issued the country's second-highest warning for rainstorms and the highest for floods, state news agency Xinhua said.

The downpours are expected to last until Tuesday morning.

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

China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say drive climate change and contribute to making extreme weather more frequent and intense.

But it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060.

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.