China evacuates tens of thousands as rain from Typhoon Narra lashes south-west

BEIJING – Torrential rain triggered by Typhoon Narra caused widespread flooding across China’s south-western Guangxi region over the weekend, forcing tens of thousands of people to relocate as forecasters warned of more downpours in the days ahead.Some 54,000 people have been relocated because of the flooding, including 8,087 moved to emergency shelters, state broadcaster CCTV said.Water levels at 20 monitoring stations on 15 rivers exceeded warning thresholds.Aerial footage from CCTV showed brown floodwaters engulfing parts of Chongzuo city, with roads and clusters of low-rise buildings submerged.Rescuers could be seen wading through knee-deep floodwaters while using rubber boats to evacuate stranded residents from inundated neighbourhoods.Typhoon Narra has lingered over the Beibu Gulf, also known as the Gulf of Tonkin, in the north-western part of the South China Sea for several days, bringing heavy rain to Guangxi and the nearby provinces of Hainan and Guangdong.Heavy rain is expected to persist across parts of southern China until Aug 26, with areas of Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian forecast to receive torrential rain, CCTV said.China postponed the launch of its uncrewed Chang’e-7 lunar mission, which had been expected as early as Aug 24 from Hainan’s Wenchang Space Launch Site, saying the spacecraft did not “meet launch conditions”.The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, which has a scientific payload aboard the mission, said the delay was caused by the typhoon.China Manned Space Agency did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the cause of the delay. REUTERS