The brown water is up to the shoulders of the passengers.

Many cling to the grab bars on the subway.

"I'm calling my aunt to call the police," says a desperate-sounding man in one of many videos that shook the Chinese public on Tuesday evening.

In the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, around 500 passengers were stuck in wagons on Line 5 at this time.

They were caught by a tsunami after it rained as heavily for three days in the capital of Henan Province as it does all year round.

Chinese meteorologists speak of a millennium flood.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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The passengers have to wait four hours in the rising water before they can finally be freed.

Help comes too late for some.

Twelve people were killed and five others were injured, the Zhengzhou city government announced on Wednesday morning.

Images of a subway station are circulating on the Chinese Internet in which four people are lying on the floor between those who have been rescued.

Someone covered their faces with clothing.

Xi expresses himself unusually quickly

State and party leader Xi Jinping was alarmed on Wednesday. The situation is "very serious," he says, according to the state media. Dams and water reservoirs are damaged. The most important thing now is to protect the security and property of the citizens. He calls on the local authorities to "strictly" adhere to the requirements of the flood and emergency aid ordinances. Xi orders that soldiers help with the rescue and clean-up work. He also instructs authorities at all levels to take precautions, including preventing epidemics in the flood area. The impoverishment of flood victims must also be prevented, he says. It is unusual for China for the head of state and party to speak up so quickly and comprehensively about a disaster situation.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses tell of the frightening hours they spent in the subway. Three hours after the subway got stuck, oxygen was running out, says a man from the party newspaper Bingdian Zhoumo. “A lot of people around me gasped, some vomited. There were children there too, pregnant women and old people. ”The passengers smashed the windows so that at least air could get into the wagon. The Nanfang Zhoumo newspaper interviews a man who rushed to help his stuck wife. “There weren't enough rescue workers,” he says. He carried a person on his back out of the danger zone and only later realized that she was already dead.

There are also dramatic scenes in other parts of Zehngzhou. Streets are turning into rivers that carry cars and people with them. In one of the suburbs, more than 600 millimeters of precipitation are measured within three days, more than ever before since the measurements began. Many houses there are threatened with collapse. There is no electricity and no drinking water. Many trapped residents post calls for help on the Internet, where volunteers coordinate. Posts with the hashtag # Henan-Storm-Self-Help will be viewed 2.8 billion times by noon. Many offer private accommodation or driving services.

There are also calls for help from the hospitals. There is a lack of food, which is usually provided by relatives in China's hospitals. There are reports of children who have been locked in kindergartens since Tuesday waiting for help. According to official information, rescue workers have brought more than 100,000 residents to rescue shelters so far. The rain continues, according to the weather forecast, relief can only be expected on Thursday. Zhengzhou, a city of 12 million people, is not far from the Yellow River. Numerous other cities in the region are also affected.