(CNN) — At least five people were killed and 33 injured in a tornado that hit cccccccccccccccc, a city of 19 million people in southern China, on Saturday, Chinese state media reported.
Authorities say 141 factory buildings were damaged, but no residential houses collapsed, according to the Xinhua news agency. The agency said that according to a preliminary assessment, the tornado reached a level three intensity, two below the maximum level of five.
Guangzhou, about 130 kilometers from Hong Kong, is the capital of Guangdong province.
A weather station in Liangtian town in Baiyun district, about three kilometers from where the tornado struck, recorded a maximum wind gust of 20.6 meters per second, Xinhua reported.
By 10 pm local time, search and rescue operations had ended.
The tornado struck after days of torrential rain hit southern China, triggering deadly flooding and threatening to disrupt the lives of tens of millions of people, as rescue teams race to evacuate trapped residents. by the rising waters.
Guangdong province, an economic powerhouse with 127 million people, has suffered widespread flooding that has forced the relocation of more than 110,000 people, state media reported, citing the local government.
Earlier this week, state media reported that flooding had killed at least four people in Guangdong.
Since April 16, sustained torrential rains have lashed the Pearl River Delta, China’s manufacturing heartland and one of the country’s most populated regions, with four Guangdong weather stations recording record rainfall for April.
The Pearl River Basin experiences annual flooding from April to September, but in recent years the region has faced more intense storms and severe flooding, as scientists warn that the climate crisis will amplify extreme weather conditions, making them deadliest and most frequent.
Although tornadoes are not as frequent in China as in the United States, they do occur. A 2015 peer-reviewed scientific paper found that China averages fewer than 100 tornadoes a year, and that at least 1,772 people had been killed by tornadoes in the country in the 50 years since 1961.
The China Meteorological Agency warns that heavy rain and strong storms are likely to continue until the end of the month.
