Heavy floods submerge roads, vehicles in China

Severe flooding in China's northern Hebei province and northeastern Liaoning province submerged roads and swept away cars, while people swam and paddle-boarded along neighbourhood streets, ​videos on social media showed.

Water levels rose to more than two metres on ‌roads in Kuancheng, a county in Hebei, according to a resident's account that was broadcast by local official media.

Kuancheng is home to around 240,000 people and is located on the banks of the ​Luan River.

Several cars were filmed crashing into each other in Kuancheng as they ​bobbed up and down a waterlogged road before being carried away by ⁠the strength of the current.

The floods came after Typhoon Bavi, the most powerful storm to ​strike mainland China this year, brought heavy rain to the eastern coast and violent winds ​to the area's densely populated cities, testing the country's ability to cope with extreme weather.

Authorities warned the storm would dump torrential rain across the provinces of Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Anhui, exacerbating ​flood risks in areas that had already been soaked by earlier downpours.

Around 1,800 villagers in ​Kuancheng were stranded, state broadcaster CCTV reported, while authorities said that relocating and resettling residents was their ‌top ⁠priority. In Liaoning, authorities raised the red alert for flash floods, warning of very high risks.

"During a red alert for heavy rain, all work stoppages, business closures, and gatherings must be fully implemented," Hebei authorities said in a statement on WeChat.

Videos on RedNote, known ​in China as Xiaohongshu, ​showed a person swimming ⁠backstroke down a road, which had rows of parked cars with only the tops of the vehicles visible above the water. Another ​clip on RedNote showed someone standing on a paddleboard to navigate ​the flooded ⁠streets.

-Reuters