After Europe, it is China now that is experiencing massive downpour leading to some unimaginable floods in the country. The torrential rain that lashed China’s central province of Henan has caused landslides and flooding that majorly seem to have affected the underground rail system of Zhengzhou.
The local government officials have informed that about 2,00,000 residents were evacuated as of Wednesday as soldiers led rescue efforts in Zhengzhou, a city of over 10 million people, where days of rain have inundated the streets and subway. The flooding has now led to the death of 16 people as per recent reports.
Videos and images of flooding inside the metro trains and subways that have been largely circulated in social media platforms, shows water reaching up to the passengers’ shoulders while they cling on the handrails inside the carriage.
Watch the videos here:
Zhengzhou metro line 2 pic.twitter.com/lWCXoiXxqU
— Eddie Du (@EddieDu5) July 20, 2021
7月20日晚，郑州暴雨地铁5号线一车厢多人被困，水位淹过肩膀。根据郑州地铁晚上发布的消息，受持续暴雨影响，郑州地铁全线网车站已暂停运营服务，消防人员正在救援。 pic.twitter.com/wCiz7TGhki
— The Paper 澎湃新闻 (@thepapercn) July 20, 2021
Twelve people were killed in the Metro, five more were injured and hundreds were rescued, the officials said.
Weather authorities in Zhengzhou say the rainfall was the highest since record-keeping began 60 years ago with the city seeing the kind of rain it usually gets in a year in just three days.
Some 617.1 millimetres (24.3 inches) of rain fell on Zhengzhou in that time, compared with the city’s annual average of 640.8 mm (25.2 inches).