Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
News footage released on Chinese broadcaster CGTN showed rescuers carrying children and guiding elderly to safety amid flood-stricken passageways and homes in Anyang on Thursday.
Tens of thousands of people were being evacuated from flood-hit regions of central China on Thursday as officials raised the death toll from heavy rain that has deluged Henan province for almost a week to 33 people.
More cities were inundated and crops destroyed as the severe weather spread northwards, with the official Xinhua news agency reporting direct economic losses of 1.22 billion yuan ($189 million).
Rescue teams used rubber rafts to ferry residents to safety, while others waded through the water carrying belongings above their heads or waited on half-submerged cars to be picked up.
The provincial weather bureau raised the storm alert on Thursday for four cities in the north of Henan – Xinxiang, Anyang, Hebi and Jiaozuo – to red, the highest tier of a four-step color-coded weather warning system.
