Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei have been hit by severe flooding, with waters rising to dangerous levels. The rains destroyed roads and knocked out power and even pipes carrying drinking water.

Among the hardest hit areas is Zhuozhou, a small city in Hebei province that borders Beijing's southwest. On Tuesday night, police there issued a plea on Weibo for lights to assist with rescue work.

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It's unknown how many people are trapped in flood-stricken areas in the city and surrounding villages.

On Wednesday, waters in Gu'an county in Hebei, which borders Zhuozhou, reached as high as halfway up a pole where a surveillance camera was installed.

AP journalists encountered a couple who were trying to pass through the flooded areas to rescue a relative trapped in a nearby village.

They declined to be interviewed.

Also read: Floods in China leave 20 dead, 27 missing

Chinese authorities said Tuesday the torrential rains around Beijing had caused at least 20 deaths and 27 people are missing.

The previous record for rainfall was in 1891, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said on its official Weibo account Wednesday, when the city saw 609 millimetres (24 inches) of rain. The earliest precise recordings made by machines are from 1883.

Thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in schools and other public buildings in suburban Beijing and in nearby cities.

The severity of the flooding took the Chinese capital by surprise. Beijing usually has dry summers but had a stretch of record-breaking heat this year. 

A powerful Typhoon Khanun was approaching Japan’s southwestern island of Okinawa on Tuesday, lashing the region with strong winds and high waves, and forcing transportation to halt and stores to close. The slow-moving Khanun, which means jackfruit in Thai, caused hundreds of flights into and out of Naha airport to be cancelled, and also disrupted bus services and rail transit systems. (Agencies)