Nearly 10,000 passengers have been stranded at the Beijing Capital International Airport as the heaviest rainstorm to hit Beijing this summer canceled nearly every flights leaving the city on Monday night.

Airport authorities have to adjust the takeoff schedules on Tuesday to ensure layover flights from Monday take off first.

But this has postponed even more flights.

"I left home at 6:30 AM hoping to catch an 8:30 flight to Xining," says a Beijing office worker surnamed Yi. "But the airport was overcrowded with layovers from last night and there's no way for my flight to take off any time before 2:00 pm."

The rain began to hit most parts of the city at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, but nearly all flights were canceled after 3:40 p.m. against thunder and lightning alarms from the central and local meteorological bureaus, airport authorities and airline companies confirmed.

Clerks at the airport's service desk confirmed at least 40 flights were canceled on Monday night. "It rained in many other northern cities, too. Many flights to Beijing were also canceled."

The terminal building had become a mess by 10:00 PM, with children and elderly people sleeping on the floor and furious passengers protesting with airline companies, which claimed they were unable to provide food and lodging.

An Air China spokesman said passengers had to arrange for their own food and lodging when flights were laid over by bad weather.

"The flight was canceled at 3:40 PM but the airline company never explained," said a passenger surnamed Su, who was planning to take a China Eastern flight to Shanghai. "The airport and airline companies should have been more prepared for the bad weather and provided better service."

A group of 120 teenage students heading home to Wenzhou in the eastern Zhejiang Province had to huddle together in the terminal building for the night. Their teacher complained one of them caught cold and had a fever on Tuesday. "We don't have the budget for hotel rooms," said their teacher on condition of anonymity. "Besides, we have to wait here for the first flight in the morning."

Some passengers complained all nearby hotels were fully booked on Monday night. "We couldn't go anywhere even if we wished to."

As several flights to Beijing were canceled, nearly 1,000 passengers were stranded for 20 hours at Hangzhou airport in Zhejiang Province.

The first flight from Hangzhou to Beijing took off at 8:10 AM on Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2007)