BEIJING • A manicured hand touching a train carriage window as a brown swirl of water flooded the tunnel outside was just one of the many scenes of desperation from an underground tragedy shared across China's stunned social media.
At least 12 people died, with five others injured, according to city authorities, in the subway flood as water coursed below ground on Tuesday evening in Zhengzhou, a city in central China's Henan.
Microblogging platform Weibo and local media outlets carried fragments of the horror - video posts seemingly made as a final testimony - of chest-high and rising water levels inside carriages as the lights went out on the city's "Line Five" during the commuter rush hour.
Videos showed train platforms submerged by a fast-flowing muddy deluge while commuters - some bemused, others terrified - stood as water rose ominously around them, knocking out power.
One video showed a hand with painted nails, gently pushing against the carriage window, a stirring sign of incredulity at the surging water level outside, before its inevitable breach of the 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," another woman said on Weibo.
She was making her way home around 5pm on Tuesday when her train halted between two stations close to the city centre.
Another Weibo user recounted failed attempts to escape the carriage. "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 said parents lifted their children above the torrent as dread gripped the carriages.
Later, the glass was smashed by rescuers, whom state media said also cut into the stricken carriages from above to pull passengers out to 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 on to the railings as about a dozen of us were climbing (out of the tunnel)."
Heavy rainstorms that have battered Zhengzhou since Saturday were blamed for the calamity. Days of record rainfall had poured down on the city of 10 million and its surroundings.
Social media blew up with messages from panicked relatives of residents in Zhengzhou desperate to reach 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."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
