Terrified passengers climb onto handrails after floods deluge station
Passengers at a subway station in Brazil were forced to balance on handrails as a torrent of flood water surged past underneath them.
A video, posted on Instagram, shows several people sitting and some standing on the rail in São Paulo after the station was hit by the deluge.
If follows heavy rain on Friday that caused widespread chaos, including over 100,000 homes losing electricity and cars floating down flooded streets.
One video shows a man riding a jet ski down a flooded road and another the moment a British Airways plane was dramatically struck by lightning.
The Airbus A350 – set to fly to London – was parked at at São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport when the vertical stabiliser was hit.
The plane was delayed so inspections could be carried out, but was subsequently allowed to take off, The Sun reports.
In the northern district of Vila Guilherme, a section of the roof of a shopping mall collapsed under the weight of the rain.
For the first time, local authorities sent an emergency alert to residents’ phones warning of flooding and urging people to seek safety.
Many residents took refuge in the subway stations, several of which became over-crowded.
It’s not clear if the flooding – caused by a month’s worth of rain falling in just a few hours – has lead to any injuries or deaths.
In April and May last year, at least 180 people died and around 230,000 residents were displaced after catastrophic floods in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
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