A record-breaking rainfall in Hong Kong has caused chaos (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Two people have been killed and more than 100 injured after Hong Kong was hit with its heaviest rainfall since records begun in 1884.
Video footage shows water cascading down steep hillsides and flooding waist-deep in streets, malls, metro stations and tunnels.
Roads have also collapsed and landslides have happened in several places.
‘I’ve never seen scenes like this before. Even during previous typhoons, it was never this severe. It’s quite terrifying,’ said Hong Kong assistant nurse Connie Cheung, 65.
The extreme weather, caused by typhoon Haikui, also brought chaos to the nearby Chinese city of Shenzhen, a tech hub and home to more than 17.7 million people.
Although the typhoon later weakened to a tropical depression, its slow-moving clouds dumped huge amounts of water on areas still recovering from a super typhoon a week earlier.
Hong Kong’s weather bureau issued its highest ‘black’ rainstorm warning early today.
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A vehicle lies in a collapsed section of a road (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
It said 200mm (7.9ins) of rain was recorded on Hong Kong’s main island, theKowloon district and the northeastern part of the city’s New Territories late Thursday.
The ‘black’ alert has now been lowered but authorities warned of risks from ongoing flooding.
John Lee, the city’s leader, said he was very concerned about the severe flooding in most parts of the territory and that all departments had been instructed to respond with ‘all-out efforts’.
People stand next to a landslide covering a road Hong Kong’s Shau Kei Wan (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Flood water covers the floor of a shopping mall in the city (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile Eric Chan, secretary for administration, said Hong Kong’s transport network had been ‘severely disrupted’ and an ‘extreme conditions situation’ would be extended to midnight today.
Some roads were partly washed out, and a car was swallowed up by a metres-wide pothole when one section of road collapsed, social media pictures showed.
A person taken by rescue workers to hospital was pronounced dead on arrival, a television news channel reported.
A car drives through floodwaters on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Cars lie submerged (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Schools have also been shut down, workers told to stay home and Hong Kong’s stock exchange closed.
A rainfall log showed 465.5 mm (1.5 ft) of rain fell in Shenzhen over a 12-hour period, the most since records there began in 1952.
Videos from state media shows residents in the city holding onto safety lines and carefully walking through knee-deep water, while its reported that all schools, some subway stations and offices there were shut today.
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The waters are the deepest since records began in 1884.
