Parts of China have been hit by "the heaviest rain in 1,000 years" - with footage showing underground train carriages filling with water.
More than 20cm of rain fell on the city of Zhengzhou, Henan province, in a single hour on Tuesday. In the recent European floods, the worst-hit areas of Germany saw 18.2cm over three days.
At least 25 people died and seven went missing in the floods, local authorities said, as 100,000 were forced to flee their homes, according to China's state news agency Xinhua.
Very distressing scenes in Zhengzhou right now where there is severe flooding. People trapped in subway - some rescued but other videos appear to show dead bodies pic.twitter.com/6Uv0liJfRJ — Tom Cheshire (@chesh) July 20, 2021
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Floodwater surges through Chinese subway
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Cars float down flooded road in China
Pictures and video from the region showed torrents of water flowing down streets, with rescuers working to evacuate people who had become trapped.
Power was cut to some parts of the city, trains were suspended, roads were closed and flights delayed.
Posts on social media showed commuters trapped in waist-deep flood water on a subway train.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Woman rescued from raging floodwaters
One internet user wrote on social media: "The water outside the cabin was rising, and it was leaking in from the door.
"I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the increasingly diminishing air supply in the cabin."
Subway passengers trapped in the water. pic.twitter.com/IyqmKN7WEr — Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 20, 2021
Image: Zhengzhou city was on the receiving end of a lot of rain. Pic: AP
Sky News Asia correspondent Tom Cheshire tweeted: "Very distressing scenes in Zhengzhou right now where there is severe flooding. People trapped in subway - some rescued but other videos appear to show dead bodies."
Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, has a population of more than 10 million and is located on the bank of the Yellow River - one of China's largest waterways.
Other cities in Henan - including Ruzhou - have also been ravaged by the waters.
The Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng had to close, and an aluminium plant in the city exploded, sending water surging into the facility.
The Longmen Grottoes - a UNESCO World Heritage site featuring buddhas etched into limestone dating back as far as 500 AD - are also threatened by the flooding.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Driver surrounded by floodwater
Image: Zhengzhou has a population of more than 10 million. Pic: AP
More than 30 reservoirs in Henan have exceeded their warning levels and overnight the rainfall caused a 20-metre breach in the Yihetan dam in the city of Luoyang west of Zhengzhou.
In Zhengzhou, the flood control headquarters said the city's Guojiazui reservoir had been breached.
From Saturday to Tuesday, 3,535 weather stations in Henan saw rainfall exceeding 5cm, of which 1,614 had levels above 10cm and 151 above 25cm.
This video was shared on Weibo earlier tonight. pic.twitter.com/uPKVQZqWZz — Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 20, 2021
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Speaking on state television, Chinese President Xi Jinping said: "Flood prevention efforts have become very difficult."
Flooding is not uncommon in China during the rainy season, but the expansion of cities and conversion of agricultural land into housing has put more people closer to danger.
Forecasters are predicting the downpours to end by Thursday.
russli1993 on July 20th, 2021 at 23:43 UTC »
These stats are recorded by weather stations across the region. In 1 hr city of zhengzhou recorded 201.9mm of rain. In 3 days it recorded 617.1mm of rain. Zhengzhou on average gets 640.8mm of rain per year. So Zhengzhou saw a third of annual amount of rain in a single hour, and the annual amount of rain in just three days. How much water is 200mm of rain in a single hour? Zhengzhou has an area of 7500km2. So 200mm X 7500km2 = 1.5 cu km of water. Lake Washington in Seattle has a volume of 3.5 cu km. So more than a 1/3 of water in Lake Washington was dumped on Zhengzhou in a single hour. The sky has got a hole in it! No city drainage system is able to cope with that amount of water.
Kurainuz on July 20th, 2021 at 22:15 UTC »
Poor people, being trapped in the metro with such a flood must be a nightmare.
apple_kicks on July 20th, 2021 at 20:02 UTC »