Zhengzhou Passersby Rescue Woman, Grandkids Trapped in Flooded Car

A woman and her two grandchildren trapped inside a car overwhelmed by deep floodwaters in Central China's Henan province were miraculously rescued by passersby, including two convenience store owners, a student, two security guards and a street dancer.

On Tuesday afternoon, as torrential rain fell, a woman in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, was trapped by rising floodwaters in her car while taking two grandchildren home from kindergarten.

From Saturday morning to Wednesday morning, precipitation in Zhengzhou exceeded its annual average of 641 millimeters. The precipitation of 201.9 millimeters the city received between 4 pm and 5 pm on Tuesday broke the record for hourly precipitation in the country's land areas.

Passersby use a hammer to try to break the window of a car to save a woman and two children trapped inside, in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province, on July 20, 2021. [Photo/Screenshot from video posted online]

While trapped in the water, the woman immediately called her daughter, surnamed Liu, the Beijing News reported. The daughter confirmed their location by the description of nearby shops and tried to call those shops, based on information she got on the internet, but in vain. She later posted a message on WeChat Moments, calling for help.

Her message was noticed by Chen Yangyang, a dance teacher of a child trapped in the car. On his way home, Chen rushed to the trouble spot without hesitation.

A boy is rescued from a car overwhelmed by floodwater in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province, on July 20, 2021. [Photo/Screenshot from video posted online]

At the same time, Lu Lianmeng, owner of a convenience store, noticed two missing calls from Liu in the chaotic scene while saving his stock from being inundated. Lu called back and learned the emergency.

"I called the neighboring hotel and the manager, Li Kunpeng, came with me and we rushed to the spot. There was limited time for us to get prepared and what we had was a kitchen knife," Lu was quoted by the Beijing News.

The torrential rainfall rapidly grew into fast-rising floodwaters. Outside Lu's convenience store, the water depth soon reached 1.6 meters.

Liu kept calling her mother and two children every five minutes and learned the flood water had soon risen to her mother's neck. "She was sitting on the armrest and holding the children who were frightened at that moment," Liu told the Beijing News.

"My mother told the two kids that they were playing a game called adventure in flood and someone will come to rescue them soon," she said.

A woman cries as she and her two grandchildren are rescued after being trapped inside a car in deep floodwater in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province, on July 20, 2021. [Photo/Screenshot from video posted online]

It happened as the grandmother believed. Li arrived and tried to break the car windows with the kitchen knife but failed. He called loudly to others in the hotel to bring tools.

Two security guards, Lou Yanzhe and Fan Xiaoliang, who were patrolling nearby, heard the cries for help and took a hammer and big plastic garbage cans to the site.

Yin Longfei, owner of another hotel nearby, also rushed to the scene with a big linen washing bucket.

People surround two children atop a car after pulling them out of the vehicle, which is almost completely covered in floodwater, in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province, on July 20, 2021. [Photo/Screenshot from video posted online]

More people joined in the rescue, including a bartender, Wang Shenzhen, and his colleague Feng Jinchao, who brought a long rope.

Before the car was covered by the flood water, the woman and two children, one four-years-old and the other aged 7, were saved.

In a video posted online, a total of 11 people were engaged in the rescue, and some of their names are unknown. The case was reported by several media outlets and gained tens of thousands of likes on social media.