Dozens of elderly people died in a nursing home in Beijing after it flooded during powerful storms earlier this week, local authorities have said.
Almost half of the at least 70 people who were killed when extreme weather lashed the Chinese capital and its neighbouring provinces lost their lives in the elderly care centre.
Officials said on Thursday that 31 people died at the Taishitun Town Elderly Care Centre in Beijing's Miyun district, which was one of the areas hardest hit areas by storms that dumped nearly a year's worth of rain in the area over a few days.
Flood waters surged in the area on Monday and many were caught unprepared.
Officials offered a rare public apology on Thursday when they announced the deaths.
"For a long time, this senior centre was in the town's centre and was safe, and as such was not included in the preparedness plans. This means that our prepared plans had holes," Miyun Party secretary Yu Weiguo said, calling the incident a "bitter lesson".
The care home housed 69 residents, including 55 with disabilities.
The facility sat on low-lying ground near a river that had flooded after the unusually intense rains, local media outlet Caixin reported.
When the floods hit on Monday, there were 77 people in the building, including members of staff.
The nursing home appeared in footage published by the state broadcaster CCTV. Its coverage showed rescuers in boats pulling people out of windows, but made no mention of any of the deaths.
"Through hours of a concerted effort, they successfully rescued 48 people," a caption on the footage said.
The city later announced that 28 people had died in Miyun district, but did not disclose the identity of the victims.
China's government censors have tightened information control since leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, seeing it as crucial to preventing unrest.
In recent years, a growing number of topics have been subject to censorship, from negative news about the economy to information about violent attacks.
The flood water rose quickly to two metres at its deepest, Beijing officials said.
One Beijing resident said her 87-year old mother managed to get out of the elder care centre in Miyun, according to Caixin.
"She doesn't know where she got the strength, but she managed to climb onto the windowsill," she said, noting her mother's roommate was unable to get up and drowned.
Officials said a further 44 people had died in Beijing.
In neighbouring Hebei province, authorities announced an additional eight deaths on Thursday and 16 deaths in total this week.
In northern Shanxi province, authorities said on Wednesday evening that 10 people were dead after a minibus carrying farm workers washed away in heavy rain.
Four people were still missing as the rescue continued, according to a city government statement issued three days after the bus disappeared.
