ENGULFED LAMPPOSTS
An AFP team in Qingyuan saw the Bei River running much higher than its usual level on Tuesday evening, with the water almost completely engulfing lampposts on a pedestrianised bank that had been closed to the public.
The rain stopped in the afternoon and the flood water fell slightly, allowing curious onlookers to come and look over the swollen banks.
Li Yan, 52, said he was more concerned about people living down the river than about the continued rainfall forecast for the next few days.
“Where I live there’s no risk. People here are used to flooding and the water was already higher in the past,” he said.
“Some areas downstream are more affected though.”
A friend he video called, however, was stranded on a small island on the river because of the flooding.
“But hey,” Li’s friend said. “I had provisions, so it’s no big deal.”
SHIP SINKS
In Foshan, a city in central Guangdong, four people were missing after a ship struck a bridge in an incident that “may have been … due to the influence of flooding”, Xinhua reported Tuesday, citing local authorities.
The vessel, which was carrying nearly 5,000 tonnes of rolled steel, smacked into a pillar of the Jiujiang Bridge on Monday evening, catapulting several of its 11 crew members into the water.
Seven people were rescued before the ship sank, Xinhua said.
A further 10 people were reported missing in earlier flood-related incidents.
