Death toll in central China floods rises to 302

The death toll from floods in central China last month is at least 302 with dozens of people still missing, officials said yesterday, after record downpours dumped a year’s worth of rain on a city in just three days, reports AFP. Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province and the epicentre of the record flooding, was hardest-hit with 292 people dead and 47 missing, according to a provincial government press briefing, as residents were trapped in subway trains, underground car parks, and tunnels. Images of passengers inundated by shoulder-height water went viral on Chinese social media on Line 5 of the city subway where 14 people died, while dozens of cars in a tunnel were tossed aside by the deluge, many with passengers still inside. “Thirty-nine people were found dead in underground carparks,” Zhengzhou’s mayor Hou Hong told reporters while updating the toll, adding that six died in a car tunnel.