HONG KONG - The Asian financial hub of Hong Kong was drenched on Friday by the heaviest rain since records began 140 years ago, injuring at least 110, as unusually wet weather caused by typhoons brought more disruption to southern China.

Videos showed cascades of water surging down steep hillsides in the city, flooding waist-deep in narrow streets, and inundating malls, metro stations and tunnels.

The extreme weather also brought chaos to the nearby Chinese city of Shenzhen, a tech hub of more than 17.7 million people, with business and transport links across the economically important Pearl River Delta severely hit.

“I have never seen scenes like this before. Even during previous typhoons, it was never this severe. It’s quite terrifying,” said Hong Kong assistant nurse Connie Cheung, 65.

The torrential rain was brought by Haikui, a typhoon that made landfall in the Chinese province of Fujian on Tuesday.

Although it weakened to a tropical depression, its slow-moving clouds have dumped huge volumes of precipitation on areas still soaked by rain from a super typhoon a week earlier.

Hong Kong’s weather bureau issued its highest black rainstorm warning early on Friday. More than 200mm of rain was recorded on Hong Kong’s main island, the Kowloon district and the north-eastern part of the city’s New Territories from late Thursday.

The alert was lowered by 6pm on Friday, but officials warned of risks from ongoing flooding.

The city’s leader, Mr John Lee, said he was very concerned about the severe flooding in most parts of the territory and had instructed all departments to respond with “all-out efforts”.

The Hong Kong authorities shut schools on Friday and told workers to stay home, while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange cancelled all trading.

Mr Eric Chan, secretary for administration, described the deluge as “a once-in-a-century heavy rainstorm”.

He added that the city’s transport network was severely disrupted and an “extreme conditions situation” would be extended to midnight on Friday.

MTR Corp, which operates the city’s rail network, said at least one line was shut, while others were operating with delays. One video clip showed metro workers wading waist-deep in a station.

Some roads were partly washed, including a main route to the city’s southern beaches. A car was swallowed up by a metres-wide pothole when one section of road collapsed, social media pictures showed.

The Hospital Authority said at least 110 people were hospitalised due to injuries, with four in serious condition.

A man was found unconscious off the shore of western Hong Kong Island and declared dead at the hospital, though the authorities were still investigating if the death was flood-related.

The city’s Cross-Harbour Tunnel, one of the main arteries connecting Hong Kong Island to Kowloon, was inundated, and a shopping mall in the Chai Wan district was half-submerged.

Some passenger and cargo clearance operations at two border points between Hong Kong and Shenzhen were suspended due to flooding. Macau ferry operators in Hong Kong said several sailings to the gambling hub would be suspended.

Guangdong swamped

The China Meteorological Administration said heavy rain would fall until early Saturday on the central and south-western areas of Guangdong province.

All schools, some subway stations and offices in the Guangdong city of Shenzhen were shut on Friday.

Residents holding onto safety lines stepped gingerly through knee-deep water in the metropolis of 17.7 million people, videos from state media showed.

A rainfall log showed 465.5mm of rain fell in Shenzhen over a 12-hour period, the highest since records began in 1952.

Daily rainfall in the city in the Pearl River Delta linking Hong Kong to China’s mainland was expected to exceed 500mm, Shenzhen media said.

Videos showed that both the exit and entry areas of the Shenzhen railway station were flooded, with trains connecting the city and the provincial capital of Guangzhou suspended. About 100 people were stranded at the station.

Schools in 10 districts of Guangzhou were suspended for the day or had to open late, while Zhuhai city near Macau warned of waterlogging and landslides. The industrial city of Dongguan, north of Shenzhen, reported its heaviest rain in 15 years. REUTERS, AFP