Twenty-five flights were delayed and more than 10 areas flooded yesterday morning as the first rainstorm of the year swept through Shenzhen, airport and disaster relief authorities said.

The rainstorm also poured over 1 million cubic meters of water into the thirsty reservoirs of the city.

The municipal disaster management office said the benefits of the rainstorm outweighed the damage it caused.

The city recorded an average of 50 millimeters of rain in the morning, with Guangming Subdistrict of Bao'an recorded 85 millimeters of rain, according to the office.

The local meteorological observatory issued three rainstorm warnings and the disaster management office activated an emergency system against floods yesterday.

The rainstorm subsided into showers in the afternoon. The observatory forecast that there will be no more rainstorms today, but there will be occasional showers.

Twenty-five flights were delayed as of 3 p.m. yesterday, said Zheng Wei, a spokesman of Shenzhen International Airport. Five flights were forced to land in nearby cities, he said.

The rainstorm flooded more than 10 areas in Nanshan and Bao'an District. The hardest-hit area was the Nantou checkpoint section of National Highway 107, where the water was 0.4 to 0.6 meters deep, according to the disaster management office.

No casualties were reported in the rainstorm.

Editor: Yan