At least 12 people died in severe flooding Tuesday in a Chinese provincial capital, as the waters also trapped people in subways and schools, washed away vehicles and stranded people in their workplaces overnight.

The already-drenched city of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, saw 200 millimetres of rain from 4 to 5 p.m., the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Henan weather agency.

Henan, a populous province double the size of Austria, has been hit by storms since the weekend in an unusually active rainy season.

Xinhua said that 12 had died and 100,000 people had been moved to safer