A sudden strong rainstorm hit China's capital city on Saturday afternoon and caused collapses of six houses and injured two people in addition to traffic jam in the downtown areas.

The shower started at 4:00 pm and continued for two or three hours in the city.

The storm brought over 50 mm rainfall to the downtown places and till 9:00 pm, the rainfall on the average reached 73 mm.

In Xicheng District, an electricity pole fell down in the rain and two guards were injured after they got a shock from the electricity line.

Many cars were nearly submerged and trapped in the water causing serious traffic jams at crossroads, said witnesses.

The temperature also fell fast with the rainstorm. The minimum temperature on Saturday night will be 19 Celsius degrees and the maximum on Sunday will be no more 22 Celsius degrees, according to the weather forecast.

Meteorologists said the rain is somewhat good for Beijing because the rainfalls in the city were below-average in the past days.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2004)