BEIJING - A manicured hand touches the train car window as a brown swirl of floodwater squeezes against the outer tunnel, one of many desperate scenes from an underground tragedy shared on Chinese social media Wednesday.
At least twelve were killed and five others injured in the subway flood, according to city authorities, as water ran underground Tuesday night in Zhengzhou, in central China's Henan province.
VIDEO: Firefighters rescue trapped passengers from a flooded subway station in central China's Zhengzhou city, where deadly torrential rains have wreaked havoc pic.twitter.com/OYTZBv8D5l
- AFP news agency (@AFP) July 21, 2021
Social media platform Weibo and local media outlets posted snippets of horror - video posts apparently made as final testimony - of the water rising chest-high and inside the carriages as the lights on 'Line Five' went out. out of town during rush hour.
The videos showed platforms submerged by a fast-flowing muddy deluge, while internal travelers (some bewildered, others terrified) stood as water rose ominously around them, cutting off the power and forcing parents to hold their children. .
A video showed the hand of a woman with painted nails gently pushing the carriage window, a poignant sign of disbelief at the rising water level outside, a moment of dread before the inevitable smashing of the carriage doors.
"The water was seeping through the cracks in the door, more and more, as many of us as we could, we stood on the subway seats," another woman said on Weibo.
He was heading home around 5 p.m. Tuesday when his train stopped between two stations near the city center.
Another Weibo user related that he was forced to return to a carriage after failed evacuation attempts.
"In the half hour that followed, the water level rose higher and higher inside the train, from the ankles to the knees to the neck."
"The power went out. Half an hour later it became difficult to breathe."
Survivors said parents lifted their children above the torrent as terror gripped the carriages.
Suddenly, rescuers broke the glass, and state media said they also cut the affected cars from above to get passengers to safety.
A male survivor named Zhang told state broadcaster CCTV: "My shirt, my backpack, anything I could throw away, I threw away. People around me were holding onto the railings while a dozen of us were climbing [out of the tunnel]. "
The strong storms that hit Zhengzhou since Saturday were to blame for the calamity.
Record rainy days fell on the city of 10 million and its environs, but nothing prepared residents for what was about to happen.
Social media erupted with messages from terrified relatives of Zhengzhou residents desperate to get home because communications failed.
"Is the second floor in danger? My parents live there, but I can't reach them by phone," wrote one user.
"Please tell me. Thank you. I'm very anxious." - AFP
