Beijing officials say a group of older people trapped in a nursing home that flooded were among the dead in powerful storms that lashed the city and neighboring provinces.

BEIJING (Reuters) -Thirty people were killed in Beijing as of midnight on Monday as as almost a year's worth of rain hit the capital in a matter of days, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

Chinese state media say that 30 people have died in heavy rains and flooding in and around Beijing, raising the death toll from the flooding in the region to 34.

Local officials admit "loopholes in emergency planning" and say the incident is a painful lesson that serves as "a wake-up call".

Beijing city officials have admitted failures in their response to heavy flooding that killed 31 residents of a care home.