A manicured hand touches the train carriage window as a brown swirl of floodwater squeezes up against the tunnel outside -- one of 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 in the subway flood, according to city authorities, as water coursed below ground on Tuesday evening in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan province.

Social media 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 inside carriages as lights went out on the city's 'Line Five' during the commuter rush hour.

Videos showed platforms submerged by a fast-flowing muddy deluge, while inside commuters - some bemused, others terrified - stood as the water rose ominously around them, knocking the power out and forcing parents to hold 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 moment of dread before the inevitable breach of the carriage 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 5 p.m. on Tuesday when her train halted between two stations close to the city centre.

Another user on Weibo recounted being forced back into a carriage after failed attempts to evacuate.

"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.

Suddenly the glass was smashed by rescuers, who state media said also cut into the stricken carriages from above to pull the 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 onto 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 rains poured down on the city of 10 million and its surroundings, but nothing prepared residents for what was about to happen.

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."

Chinese city battered by storms as subway floods
Beijing (AFP) July 20, 2021 - A Chinese city hit by torrential storms that killed at least three people closed its flooded subway system Tuesday and cancelled hundreds of flights, as it braces for further severe downpours.

At least one person died and two more were missing since heavy rain began battering Zhengzhou Monday, according to the state-run People's Daily, which reported that houses have collapsed.

Local media reported earlier that two people had been killed when a wall collapsed in another district of the city.

According to the Zhengzhou weather authorities, the rainfall was the highest recorded since records began sixty years ago.

Unverified videos on social media showed passengers in a flooded underground train carriage in central Zhengzhou clinging to handles as the water surged to shoulder height, with some standing on seats.

Water could be seen gushing through an empty underground platform in state broadcaster CCTV's footage.

The city's subway operator said in a statement Tuesday that it would close all stations on all its lines due to the bad weather.

On its official Weibo account, the fire service shared reports that passengers were being rescued from stranded trains, but did not post its own statement.

One passenger's account said fire and rescue workers had opened a hole in the roof of her carriage and evacuated passengers one by one.

Weather authorities have issued the highest warning level for central Henan province, as CCTV showed submerged cars, shuttered shops and residents of flooded streets being rescued in rafts, one clutching a baby.

Footage showed one man sitting on top of his half-submerged car in an underpass.

More than 10,000 people had been evacuated as of Tuesday afternoon, said provincial authorities, warning that 16 reservoirs had seen water rise to dangerous levels as downpours ruined thousands of acres of crops and caused damage amounting to around $11 million.

Around 260 flights have been cancelled.

Floods are common during China's rainy season, which causes annual chaos and washes away roads, crops and houses.

But the threat has worsened over the decades, due in part to widespread construction of dams and levees that have cut connections between the river and adjacent lakes and disrupt floodplains that had helped absorb the summer surge.

Earlier this month hundreds of flights were cancelled in the capital Beijing and other nearby cities with schools and tourist sites closed as torrential downpours and gale-force winds battered the region.

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