More than 300 people died in recent flooding in central China, authorities said Monday, three times the previously announced toll.
The earlier death toll, announced on Friday, was 99.
The Henan provincial government said 302 people died and 50 remain missing. The vast majority of the victims were in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, where 292 died and 47 are missing. Ten others died in three other cities, officials said at a news conference in Zhengzhou.
Record rainfall inundated the city on July 20, turning streets into rushing rivers and flooding at least part of a subway line. Video posted online showed vehicles being washed away and desperate people trapped in subway cars as the waters rose. Fourteen people died in the subway flooding.
Authorities said 189 people were killed by floods and mudslides, 54 in house collapses and 39 in underground areas such as basements and garages and including those on subway Line 5. The death toll remained at six in an expressway tunnel from which 247 vehicles were removed as it was drained.
Wang Kai, the governor of Henan province, expressed deep condolences to the victims and sympathies to the families on behalf of the Henan Communist Party committee.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE: The China National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) jointly activated a level-IV emergency response on Monday to floods in the northern province of Hebei.
Since late July, cities such as Handan and Xingtai in the province have suffered severe flooding triggered by torrential rainfalls, Typhoon In-Fa, and inflows of upstream water, the MEM said.
As of Monday, the floods had affected 654,000 people and claimed two lives in Hebei, with 103,000 relocated.
The natural disaster had also caused a direct economic loss of 660 million yuan (about $102.15 million), the ministry said.
A working team has been dispatched by the commission and the MEM to the affected areas to help local authorities with disaster relief work.
China has a four-tier flood-control emergency response system, with Level I being the most severe.
