Heatwaves hammer megacities in China's Yangtze River basin

The province of Zhejiang south of Shanghai issued a record 51 red alerts in one day, with local media reporting people being admitted to hospitals for heatstroke or even dying from it

Searing heatwaves swept across China's vast Yangtze River basin on Wednesday, hammering densely populated megacities from Shanghai on the coast to Chengdu deep in the heartlands.

More than 90 red alerts, the most severe in a three-rung warning system, were active across China as of 3:30 p.m. Most were in the Yangtze basin, which spans nearly 2,000 km.

Shanghai, China's commercial capital, issued its second red alert in four days, warning of temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. Construction and other outdoor activities are reduced or halted under a red alert, historically very rare for the city of 25 million.

In Nanjing, a nearby city of over 9 million, the summer "has never been hotter," said one 77-year-old resident.