Beijing, China:
A manicured hand touches the train carriage window as a brown swirl of floodwater squeezes up against the tunnel outdoors — one of numerous scenes of desperation from an underground tragedy shared Wednesday across a stunned Chinese social media.
At least twelve died and 5 other folks have been injured in the subway flood, according to city authorities, as water coursed under ground on Tuesday evening in Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan province.
Social media platform Weibo and regional media outlets carried fragments of the horror — video posts seemingly made as a final testimony — of chest-higher and increasing water inside carriages as lights went out on the city’s ‘Line Five’ throughout the commuter rush hour.
Zhengzhou, China.
Think your commute is terrible?
Try finding stuck in a flooded subway train. pic.twitter.com/gE3neHRwhv— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) July 20, 2021
Videos showed platforms submerged by a rapidly-flowing muddy deluge, whilst inside commuters – some bemused, other folks terrified – stood as the water rose ominously about them, knocking the energy out and forcing parents to hold up their children.
One video showed a woman’s hand with painted nails, gently pushing at the carriage window, a stirring sign of incredulity at the surging water level outdoors – a moment of dread just before the inevitable breach of the carriage doors.
“Water was leaking from the cracks in the door, more and more of it, all of us who could, stood on the subway seats,” yet another lady mentioned on Weibo.
She was creating her way home about 5 p.m. on Tuesday when her train halted involving two stations close to the city centre.
Another user on Weibo recounted becoming forced back into a carriage right after failed attempts to evacuate.
“In the half-hour that, followed the water level became higher and higher inside the train, from our ankles to our knees to our necks.”
“The power went out. Half an hour later it got hard to breathe.”
Survivors mentioned parents lifted their children above the torrent as dread gripped the carriages.
Suddenly the glass was smashed by rescuers, who state media mentioned also reduce into the stricken carriages from above to pull the passengers out to security.
A male survivor named Zhang told state broadcaster CCTV: “My shirt, my backpack — everything I could throw away, I threw away. The people around me clutched onto the railings as about a dozen of us were climbing (out of the tunnel).”
Heavy rainstorms that have battered Zhengzhou due to the fact Saturday have been blamed for the calamity.
Days of record rains poured down on the city of 10 million and its surroundings, but nothing at all ready residents for what was about to come about.
Social media blew up with messages from panicked relatives of residents in Zhengzhou desperate to attain home as communications went down.
“Is the second floor in danger? My parents live there, but I can’t get through to them on the phone,” one user wrote.
“Please tell me. Thank you. I’m very anxious.”
()