Twenty people in Chongqing were confirmed killed by recent heavy rainstorms. The toll included 16 hikers swept away by a flash flood in Tanzhangxia Canyon in Wanzhou county.

The four-day rainstorm destroyed 1,686 homes and 4,900 hectares of cropland in the counties of Chengkou, Yunyang, Kaixian and Wanzhou, the local government said.

These were the heaviest rainstorms to affect Chongqing in 50 years.