China Censors Information on Flooding in Beijing

Lu Wei respondent to the press to report only the "achievements deserving praise and tears" as the heroic actions of emergency services or certain people, the newspaper reported Tuesday Jinghua Shibao.

Some deaths could have been avoided if warnings had been issued to the public and drainage systems upgraded, according to residents who expressed their anger through microblogs. Tuesday, the censors were at work to remove the most critical of these messages.

Residents of Fangshan, a mountainous district in the southwest of the city, complained to AFP's lack of assistance provided by the authorities to help them find their missing relatives. "The government is to no help, each family must accommodate to be with them, "according to Wang Baoxiang, whose 30-year-old nephew has been missing since the torrential rains that hit Beijing on Saturday, 16 hours.

The drainage system "seriously flawed" acknowledged in an editorial in China Daily English newspaper that caters to a primarily foreign audience. But most of the media refrained from criticism, for example preferring to focus on mutual aid between neighbors face of disaster.

At an emergency meeting Monday night, the leader of the capital called for intensified efforts to find the missing, to identify the body and repair roads damaged by the sudden rising waters. These rains "were a natural disaster of an extreme dimension, rarely seen in Beijing ... that caused heavy losses of lives and property," the mayor of the capital, Guo Jinlong, quoted by the Daily Beijing.

The worst storm recorded since 1951 has caused considerable damage estimated at 10 billion yuan (1.25 billion euros) and nearly 66,000 people had evacuated people.

"All segments of society are concerned about the number of victims, and we must establish the causes of death," said Guo, who asked that any worsening of the balance sheet is reported immediately.