THE rain that has been pouring down on the city for the past week will fade to scattered showers starting today, the Shenzhen Meteorological Observatory said.

    But on Friday Shenzhen is due for another round of heavy rains.

    The weekend rains caused floods in 70 areas, caused five landslides, and pushed the Junzibu River in Longhua and the Longgang River water levels high enough to cause an alert, the city’s flood control and disaster relief headquarters said.

    The two-hour rain Saturday afternoon flooded the city’s main roads including the Civic Center area of Shennan Boulevard, Xiangmihu Road, Baohe Road and Huangge Road. More than 260 vehicles were flooded with water.

    Police received 1,529 reports including 442 accident reports and 592 congestion reports between 1:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., triple the amount on Friday.

    The average rainfall of 103.4 millimeters across the city forced the Shenzhen Meteorological Observatory to issue a red alert in Longgang and Pingshan, which were hard-hit by the heavy rain.

    Shenzhen has entered the intense, frequent rainfall period known as the Dragon Boat Rainfall period, which often occurs around the Dragon Boat Festival each year. In the past two weeks since May 9, the start of flood season, the city recorded 257.6 millimeters of rainfall, the second heaviest in the past 10 years.

    (Han Ximin)