Waterfalls Form At Wuxi East Railway Station After Heavy Rains

Wuxi East railway station, in eastern China, has been hit by flooding that caused waterfalls to form, with water seen cascading down escalators and staircases.

Parts of central and eastern China have been hit by a wave of extreme weather in recent months – including heavy rain and flooding.

Beijing and other cities braced for severe flooding on Friday as summer storms rolled across many parts of China, while inland regions baked in intense heat, threatening to shrink the country’s biggest freshwater lake.

Wild weather swings have gripped China since April, causing deaths, damaging infrastructure and wilting crops as well as raising fears of its ability to cope with climate change.

Historically, China enters its peak rainy season in late July, but extreme weather has made storms more intense and unpredictable, exposing heavily built-up megacities with poor or insufficient drainage to potentially deadly floods.

In Beijing, authorities have deployed more than 2,600 people to drain dozens of pumping stations in advance and clear thousands of water drainage outlets along roads. Several bus routes plying the suburbs and mountainous areas were halted.