Recently, Chongqing encountered heavy rain and thunderstorms, resulting in the tragic death of a sanitation worker who was struck by lightning on the road. The torrential rain led to severe flooding on the municipal roads, causing a female security guard in a residential compound to be swept away and killed.
On the night of July 8 through the early hours of July 9, the Yangjiaping Street in the Jiulongpo District of Chongqing experienced intense thunderstorms with strong winds and frequent lightning strikes.
Videos circulating online showed the scene of the day with strong winds, heavy rain pouring down, trees being uprooted, streets flooded, and numerous vehicles submerged in water.
A citizen shared a video claiming that on a road in the jurisdiction of Yangjiaping Street in Jiulongpo District, a man collapsed on the ground near a manhole cover suspected to have been struck by lightning.
On the 10th, the video uploader, Mr. Jiang, told jímù News that his store is located on Yangjiaping Street along Zhigang Avenue. Around 1 am on the 9th, he heard noises outside and saw a group of people at the entrance, saying, “I heard someone was struck by lightning.” In the daylight, he observed that the surface of the road near a manhole cover was torn up, sparking discussions among residents about a possible lightning strike.
A staff member from the Tianxing Road Community in Yangjiaping Street confirmed that a sanitation worker did indeed collapse and die on the road that night. She personally responded to the scene where the worker was found near the manhole cover, and there was damage to the asphalt road surface. However, it is still unclear whether the road damage and the worker’s death are related to the lightning strike.
According to reports from The Paper, in the early hours of the 9th, a female security guard at Century Sunshine New Shangcheng was swept away and killed by flooding.
Sources revealed that at 2:21 am on the 9th, the security guard noticed a surge of water flowing from the municipal road into the residential compound at the Music Square. Subsequently, the property management requested all guards to evacuate to high ground for safety. Due to the swift flow of water, the female security guard failed to evacuate in time and was swept away, tragically found deceased around 5 am.
Sources further stated that the heavy rain had caused deep flooding on the municipal roads. Due to the sudden downpour, some residents were unable to move their cars downstairs in time, and customers at a BBQ shop at the entrance of the compound were also trapped.
One shop owner in the compound estimated that the water reached half the height of a person at its deepest point.
Xinhua News Agency reported that since the 8th, Chongqing’s central urban area and the western part of Yuzhong have experienced heavy rain. As a result, six small and medium-sized rivers in the city surpassed their warning levels, including the Jiaodeng River in Dadukou District exceeding the guaranteed water level. As of 8 am on the 9th, the Yuxi River in Nan’an District still exceeded the warning level. By 6 am on the 9th, a total of 556 people were evacuated for safety, with two individuals urgently relocated.
Many local netizens expressed their shock at the unprecedented rainfall, with comments such as, “As far as I can remember, Chongqing has rarely seen such long-lasting torrential rain,” “Is there monitoring for the thunder along with the rain? The thunder was so loud that it felt like it produced shockwaves,” and “Couldn’t sleep at all, with lightning flashing and thunder rumbling.”