国内英语新闻:Sizzling heat wreaks havoc in China, rains expected Thursday

Qin said most of the patients were the elderly who suffered from cardiovascular diseases due to the heat.

On the 3rd Ring Road of Beijing, a passenger bus was engulfed by a blaze caused by a leak of the gas pipe due to an overheated generator. All passengers were evacuated but the bus was completely destroyed.

Huge swarms of locusts are ravaging grasslands and farmlands from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, prompting authorities to use aerial spraying of pesticides to kill the insects.

In Inner Mongolia alone, locusts have infested 3.9 million hectares, or 4.5 percent of the region's total area of grasslands.

More than 6,000 people and five planes were enlisted for locust control, completing nearly 130,000 hectares of pesticide spraying, authorities said.

In Hebei Province neighboring Beijing, local weather forecast authorities issued red, or the highest-level, heat alert Tuesday morning, after maintaining an orange-level alert for ten days.

Sales of refrigerators and air-conditioners surged in Hebei provincial capital Shijiazhuang. Many working parents sent their children to air-conditioned bookstores to escape the heat, and cab drivers said business was brisk during these hot days.

In northern port cities of Dalian and Qinhuangdao, large crowds swam in coastal waters to escape the heat.