WATCH | China flash flood: Four people killed and nine others injured

Southwest China saw a flash flood on Saturday that left four people dead and nine others hurt, according to local authorities. Chinese media footage showed a river near Pengzhou, the capital of Sichuan province, rapidly filling with water.

While some tourists managed to make it to the river bank in time, others who had been playing in the initially shallow water were forced to escape for safety and scramble over boulders. According to a video published online by the state-run Beijing Youth Daily, at least one person, a woman stuck on a boulder in the middle of the river, appeared to lose her footing and get swept away by the current.

"As of 7.30 pm, the mountain flood has killed four people, severely injured three and lightly injured six others," Pengzhou emergency response authorities said in a statement reported by AFP.

The flood occurs amid a summer in China marked by extreme weather, with Shanghai and other cities registering some of their hottest days ever during a heatwave in July. According to scientists, climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events around the world, and as global temperatures rise, this trend is likely to continue.

This weekend, temperatures are predicted to climb over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across large portions of the country that China's national observatory has issued a red alert for high temperatures, according to state news agency Xinhua. In June, severe floods in southern China forced more than 500,000 people to flee their homes and resulted in projected economic losses of $250 million.

( with inputs from agencies)