CHINA: Officials in Zhengzhou have confirmed that 12 passengers died and another five were seriously injured after parts of the city’s metro network were flooded on July 20.
In what has been described as a ‘once in 1 000 years event’, the Henan provincial capital has suffered from widespread flooding, after the heaviest rainfall recorded in more than 60 years. According to official sources, 617 mm of rain fell on the city in three days, almost as much as the annual average of 640·8 mm. Around 200 000 of the city’s 10 million inhabitants are being evacuated.
Local government officials confirmed that the city had ‘experienced a series of rare and heavy rainstorms, causing water to accumulate in the Zhengzhou metro’.
With rivers in the area bursting their banks, the floods rose to unprecedented levels in the streets. Water flowed over the steps at the station entrances and cascaded down the escalator shafts to flood the platform tunnels below. Many of those who were died are understood to become trapped at Shakoulu station on the northwestern section of the orbital Line 5.
Passengers were trapped in trains by the rising water levels, but most were evacuated by the city’s fire service and escorted to safety along the elevated walkways in the tunnels.
