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Beijing highway reopens as deluge cleared

THE highway linking Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau has been reopened for traffic this morning, two days after it was blocked by the Beijing's heaviest rainstorm in six decades.


More than 500 police officers and firefighters on 10am cleaned up the puddles, standing water and silt which covered the section around 17.5 kilometers away from the toll station in Beijing, and the highway opened to the public around 11:50am.


Among the rescuers, scuba divers were sent to see the trapped drivers in waterlogged vehicles while other police drained the water, removed the cars and tightened up the road embankments, Xinhua News Agency reported.


Reports have shown that the fierce rainfall caused the highway section to accumulate 200,000 cubic meters of water and the deepest area is six meters high. Three people were confirmed to have drowned.


The Yesanpo tourist resort in Hebei Province was also badly disrupted by the torrential rain.


As of Monday night, a total of 12,000 visitors who were trapped inside the resort have been evacuated and around 11:58pm, the last batch of visitors took the train and returned Beijing safely.



 

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