• Four people were killed and nine others were injured in a flash flood in southwest China on Saturday.
• Tourists saw racing for safety and clambering over boulders as the water raced towards them.
• In June, severe flooding in southern China displaced over 500,000 people and inflicted an estimated $250 million in economic damage.

Four people were killed and nine others were injured in a flash flood in southwest China on Saturday, according to local authorities.

Footage released by Chinese media showed water swiftly rising in a river on the outskirts of Pengzhou, Sichuan province.

Tourists saw racing for safety and clambering over boulders as the water raced towards them, but some were unable to reach the river bank in time.

At least one person, a woman stranded on a boulder in the middle of the river, appeared to lose her footing and was swept away by the current, according to a video posted online by the state-owned Beijing Youth Daily.

“As of 7.30 pm, the mountain flood has killed four people, severely injured three and lightly injured six others,” Pengzhou emergency response authorities said in a statement.

The flood comes during a summer of extreme weather in China, with multiple cities including Shanghai recording their hottest days ever during a heatwave in July.

Scientists say extreme weather across the world has become more frequent due to climate change, and will likely grow more intense as global temperatures rise.

China’s national observatory has issued a red alert for high temperatures, with temperatures forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout large swaths of the country this weekend, according to state news agency Xinhua.

In June, severe flooding in southern China displaced over 500,000 people and inflicted an estimated $250 million in economic damage.

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