Xinhua news agency said more victims of the downpours which battered much of the capital throughout Saturday had been discovered, revising up considerably the number of dead from ten.

The rainstorms led to the evacuation of more than 50,000 people from their homes in Beijing, mostly from the city's outlying mountainous districts, as up to 46 centimetres (18 inches) of rain lashed some areas, the agency added.

Xinhua quoted the Beijing municipal government as saying 25 of the victims had drowned, six had died when their houses collapsed, one was killed by a lightning strike and five had been electrocuted.

Twenty-two of the bodies have been identified, it added.

The agency had earlier reported the death toll at 10 but said it was expected to rise as numerous people, including rescue workers, were missing.

The government flood control headquarters told AFP damage assessments were ongoing.

Three bodies were recovered in Beijing's mountainous Fangshan region where several landslides were reported, China National Radio reported.

Up to 46 centimetres of rain fell in Fangshan district, the most rain to hit the city in a 14-hour period since records began in 1951, Xinhua said.

Photos showed entire parking lots flooded, while rescue and traffic workers were seen diving underwater to unclog roadside drains as helpless drivers looked on from partially submerged cars.

Numerous roads in the capital were submerged under up to a metre of water, while 500 outbound flights were cancelled and at least 80,000 passengers stranded.

On Sunday, clean-up crews were out repairing damage under largely sunny skies, while workers scrambled to drain up to one million cubic metres (35 million cubic feet) of water from the sewer system.

Despite the damage, the rain was largely welcomed in drought-prone northern China which has suffered from a lack of rain over the last decade.

More torrential rain was forecast in China's northeast and southwest, after at least 10 other people were killed since Friday.

In the northern province of Shanxi province, four people died and one remained missing after their pick-up truck was swept into a river as they attempted to cross a bridge, Xinhua said.

Landslides in southwestern Sichuan province resulted in six deaths, provincial flood control and drought relief officials told the agency.

The civil defence office said rescuers are on standby to help residents evacuate if necessary as creeks and open sewers in the capital overflowed from overnight rains, swamping nearby slums and causing traffic jams.

The rains began to ease by midday after plunging some areas in knee-deep waters, but civil defence chief Benito Ramos said he could not rule out further flooding as runoff from nearby mountains descends into Manila Bay.

"All that rain up there would eventually find their way here," he told AFP, referring to the mountains to the east of Manila.

"We have CCTV cameras to monitor the (Manila) rivers' water levels, and we have 44 evacuation centres ready and stocked with food and other items by our local government units," Ramos said.

Army reservists would be called up to help should evacuations become necessary, he said, while stressing there was no need for large-scale evacuations at the moment.

Local officials in the metropolis of 14 million declared a school holiday as intense rains that Ramos said averaged 30 millimetres (1.2 inches) per hour swamped parts of the capital and nearby areas.

The state weather service said the rainfall exceeded 40 millimetres in some areas of Manila.

Ramos said a man had drowned at a swollen creek in the northern town of Naguilian while rescuers retrieved the body of a man who fell into a river late Friday in Lumban, near Manila.

Four fishermen are missing in stormy waters off the northern town of Bolinao, while two children were missing after being swept away in other rivers, he added.

A minor storm was moving away from the country's northwest coast on Saturday after dumping rain across the north, Ramos said.

However the state weather service said the bad weather in the capital was mostly caused by a seasonal monsoon.