[New Tang Dynasty Beijing time July 27, 2021]July 26 was the “first seven” of the victims of the 7.20 subway accident in Zhengzhou, China. On the same day, at the 4 stations of Shakou Road Station, people spontaneously came to offer flowers to express their condolences. Officials set up yellow baffles at several station entrances to block the sight of pedestrians, and even parked large machinery in the open space in front of entrance C in advance to prevent people from gathering here.
According to Chinese traditional customs, the 7th day of the death of the deceased is called the “first seven”. On this day, relatives and friends of the deceased will hold a memorial for the deceased to express their condolences. Starting from July 25th, at the 4 entrances A, B, C, and D of the Zhengzhou Metro Shakou Road Station, people have spontaneously came to place a handful of flowers in plain colors to express their loss in the 7.20 subway accident. The mourning of the person.
At noon on the 26th, officials sent people to place yellow baffles about 1 meter high around the entrances of the Shakou Road Metro Station, forming a temporary wall. Netizens speculated that the official move should be an attempt to block the sight of pedestrians, as far as possible to prevent people from seeing the flowers placed on the ground at the entrance, in order to reduce the public’s attention to the subway victims.
According to Lu Media reports, the steps at B1 of Shakou Road enclosed by the baffle are also full of flowers spontaneously presented by the people. People continue to come and bow with flowers. During the period, three men engaged in corporate services came to the subway entrance to cherish the memory of the victims. One of them, Mr. Zhang, told Lu Media reporter: “We also often take the subway and feel very heavy to remember the people who left in the storm and flood. Respect for life.”
Mr. Zhang also said that the lesson left by the accident is that when encountering special circumstances, one must have the awareness of self-help and rescue others.
Located at the intersection of Beijing-Guangzhou Expressway and Huanghe Road, Shakou Road Metro Station, Exit C, is one of the official places that are particularly tight. At around 12 noon that day, officials had parked large machinery in the open space near the entrance, suspecting to prevent people from gathering here.
The family members of the victims hung white cloth strips on the wall at the entrance of No. C. Some people burned paper money on the ground; and the family members of several victims lightly placed a photo of a woman against the wall. Many citizens presented flowers, placed them on the ground in silence, bowed and left. There are also Zhengzhou subway guards standing on guard at the “doorway” formed by the yellow baffle.
There was heavy rain in Zhengzhou on July 20, and a large number of people rushing home took the 0501 train of Zhengzhou Metro Line 5. They did not expect that after the train departed from Beach Temple Station, it was forced to stop in the tunnel between Shakou Road Station and Beach Temple Station due to flooding into the subway station. About 500 passengers were trapped in the carriages. There is nowhere to escape.
The flood flowed into the compartment from the gap in the closed car door, and continued to rise, from the feet of people to the chest, and even to the neck, but the rescuers that people had been eagerly waiting for did not show up. As the floods continued to rise, people trapped in the carriages began to find it more and more difficult to breathe. Many people continue to use their mobile phones to send messages to their relatives and friends, asking them to help spread the news, and calling on the authorities to rescue them as soon as possible.
In the end, when rescuers opened the door that had been closed for several hours to guide people to evacuate, they found that some passengers had died due to lack of oxygen, loss of temperature or drowning. The official death toll on the subway is 12, of which 9 were women. This tragic event shocked the country and abroad, and caused widespread concern in international public opinion.
On social networking platforms, netizens sighed over the frequent occurrence of natural disasters in mainland China in recent years, and they also angered the Zhengzhou subway management and local government for inaction or indiscretion. Condemned the authorities for failing to stop the subway operation in time to prevent the risk of flooding when the rainstorm had struck; when the disaster had already occurred, the authorities failed to rescue people trapped in the subway and rescued the people trapped in the subway after a delay of several hours. The weak were unfortunately killed.
In addition, when the accident occurred on the 20th, many citizens lost contact with their families on Line 5 of the Zhengzhou Metro. There are still many missing persons who have not heard of them. One of them, Zou Deqiang, disappeared on the subway line on the 20th and was eventually confirmed dead on the 25th.
According to mainland media reports, Zou Deqiang is an online education practitioner. On July 19, Zou Deqiang and his colleagues were on a business trip from Shanghai to Zhengzhou. After finishing their work the next day, they were going to return to the hotel to rest. After checking the subway information, they found that the subway was still running, and the two got on Metro Line 5 together.
At about 6 pm, Zou Deqiang sent his wife a scene of water in the car that he had filmed. After that, there was no news. When his wife found that she could not contact her husband, she posted an online post to ask everyone for help in finding the whereabouts of her husband. Wang Yuanlong, a colleague who was on a business trip with him, said that after the flood poured into the subway on the night of the incident, he, Zou Deqiang and several passengers were evacuated along the track direction under the leadership of the driver, but they were washed away by the flood due to the turbulent water flow. And lost contact.
Until the 25th, after search and rescue personnel searched and found the body of a victim in the tunnel, it was confirmed by DNA identification that it was Zou Deqiang. After the news came out, many Zhengzhou citizens came to mourn outside the subway station that afternoon.
To date, there are still a large number of missing persons posted by relatives and friends of the missing on major social networking platforms. Those who lost contact with their families on the 20th have no news, and their lives and deaths are still unknown.
(Comprehensive report by reporter Zhu Ying/Editor in charge: Xu Gengwen)
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