Beijing issues blue alert for rain through the weekend

Beijing's weather authorities have issued a blue alert for heavy rain from Friday to Saturday.

Beijing Meteorological Service said on Friday that from 2 pm on Friday to 8 pm on Saturday, the city's districts including Mentougou, Fangshan, Changping, Shijingshan, Miyun and Pinggu are expected to have heavy rain of more than 50 millimeters.

Parts of Yanqing, Huairou, Shunyi, Haidian, Fengtai and Daxing are also expected to see heavy rain of more than 50 mm during the period. Some of the regions are expected to have torrential rain of more than 30 mm in an hour.

The risk of floods and other geological disasters in mountainous regions are high.

China has a four-tier color-coded warning system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.