Heavy flooding in China strands commuters, washes away cars
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Unusually heavy rain has flooded the streets of a dozen cities, trapping subway passengers waist-high in floodwaters.
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Heavy rain has pounded the central Chinese province of Henan, bursting the banks of major rivers, flooding the streets of a dozen cities and trapping subway passengers waist-high in floodwaters.
Key points:
The flooding has submerged cars and trapped people in train stations
No lives have been lost, but millions of people have had their travel plans disrupted
The flooding comes after days of relentless rain
Henan, a populous province double the size of the nation of Austria, has been hit by storms since the weekend in an unusually active rainy season.
No deaths or casualties have been reported, but the daily lives of the province's 94 million people have been upended by transport closures.
WARNING: This story contains graphic footage that may disturb some readers.
In Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, located on the banks of the Yellow River, more than 200 mm of rain fell in one hour on Tuesday, forcing the city to stop all subway train services.
People walk through muddy brown water with umbrellas
People have been trapped in waist-high water in Henan province after days of heavy rain.( AP )
Dramatic video shared on social media showed commuters waist-deep in murky floodwaters on a subway train and an underground station turned into a large, churning pool.
Henan is a major logistics hub but train services were suspended, while many highways were closed and flights delayed or cancelled.
In Ruzhou, a city south-west of Zhengzhou, streets have been turned into torrents, sweeping away cars and other vehicles, footage on social media showed.
A rising Yi River also threatened to hit the Longmen Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage site featuring millennium-old Buddhist statues etched into limestone cliffs near the city of Luoyang.
Like the Longmen Grottoes, the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng city, famous in the West for its martial arts, has been temporarily shut.
Also in Dengfeng, an aluminium alloy plant exploded on Tuesday as water from a river surged into the factory.
At least 31 large and medium-sized reservoirs in the province have exceeded their warning levels.
Cars drive through flooded roads
The rain has been unusually heavy and broken records at several weather stations.( AP: Yuanxiaoqiang )
From Saturday to Tuesday, 3,535 weather stations in Henan saw rainfall exceed 50 mm, of which 1,614 registered levels above 100 mm and 151 above 250 mm.
The highest was in Lushan city, which saw 498 mm of rain, according to the provincial weather bureau.
Rain is forecast to stop by Thursday.
Reuters