As growing numbers of Chinese internet users lambasted the government’s handling of floods that engulfed parts of Beijing at the weekend the official death toll was on Thursday more than doubled to 77.
The official death toll had stood at 37 since Sunday but many angry Beijing residents said it was underestimated.
People have taken to China’s Twitter-like microblogs in an outpouring of anger not seen since the high-speed rail disaster almost exactly a year ago that killed 40 people and exposed deep-seated distrust of the government. Like that accident, the flooding has acted as a catalyst for pitting the public against the regime which so rarely faces a broad, open challenge.
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