Torrential rains sweeping through China have killed at least 154 people and left 124 missing, officials say, with most of the casualties reported from a northern province where villagers are complaining about lack of warning before a deadly flash flood.
The rains, which began on Monday, have flooded streams, triggered landslides and destroyed homes across the country.
In the northern province of Hebei the provincial Department of Civil Affairs said 114 people were killed and 111 others were missing and more than 300,000 people were evacuated.
In the Hebei city of Xingtai alone, 25 people were killed and another 13 were missing.
The Xingtai village of Daxian was swamped by a flash flood early on Wednesday as residents were asleep.
A picture made available on 23 July 2016 of an aerial view of waters flooding Xinhua Village of Xinchang county in Wuhan city. Source: EPA
Eight people, including three children, were killed and another was missing in the flood, according to the Xingtai government.
But the tragedy did not surface until Friday, when accounts, purportedly by local residents, began surfacing on Chinese social media of angry villagers blocking roads, accusing the local authorities of failing to notify them in time for evacuation when an upstream reservoir discharged the floodwaters.
The online posts - accompanied by photos of drowned victims - also accused local officials of covering up the tragedy by lying about having no deaths in the area.
State media later confirmed that a local official had said on Wednesday afternoon that the flash flood caused no fatalities.
Some of the accompanying photos showed images of apparently drowned children lying in mud.
Although removed from social media by Saturday morning - apparently by censors - the postings had already caused a national uproar, with the public demanding accountability from local authorities.
Chinese journalists rushed to the village on Friday night and reported on the disaster.
In response, local authorities started to release casualty figures and offered explanations late Friday.
On Saturday night, Xingtai Mayor Dong Xiaoyu made a public apology and bowed at a news conference for the mishandling of the flash flood.
Authorities blamed extraordinary rainfall and a failure of a river levee near the village for the sudden water surge.
