Beijing, China: A manicured hand touches the train carriage window as a brown swirl of floodwater squeezes up against the tunnel outside — one among many scenes of desperation from an underground tragedy shared Wednesday across a stunned Chinese social media.
At least twelve died and five others were injured within the subway flood, consistent with city authorities, as water coursed below ground on Tuesday evening in Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan province.
Social media platform Weibo and native media outlets carried fragments of the horror — video posts seemingly made as a final testimony — of chest-high and rising water inside carriages as lights went out on the city’s ‘Line Five’ during the commuter hour .
Videos showed platforms submerged by a fast-flowing muddy deluge, while inside commuters – some bemused, others terrified – stood because the water rose ominously around them, knocking the facility out and forcing parents to carry 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 outside – a flash of dread before the inevitable breach of the carriage doors.
“Water was leaking from the cracks within the door, more and more of it, all folks who could, stood on the subway seats,” another woman said on Weibo.
She was making her way home around 5 p.m. on Tuesday when her train halted between two stations on the brink of the town centre.
Another user on Weibo recounted being forced back to a carriage after failed attempts to evacuate.
Zhengzhou, China.
Think your commute is bad?
Try getting stuck in a flooded subway train. pic.twitter.com/gE3neHRwhv— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) July 20, 2021
“In the half-hour that, followed the water level became higher and better 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 said parents lifted their children above the torrent as dread gripped the carriages.
Suddenly the glass was smashed by rescuers, who state media said also dig the stricken carriages from above to tug the passengers bent safety.
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 a few dozen folks were climbing (out of the tunnel).”
Heavy rainstorms that have battered Zhengzhou since Saturday were blamed for the calamity.
Days of record rains poured down on the town of 10 million and its surroundings, but nothing prepared residents for what was close to happen.
Social media blew up with messages from panicked relatives of residents in Zhengzhou wanting to reach home as communications went down.
“Is the second floor in danger? My parents live there, but i can not get through to them on the phone,” one user wrote.
