'How could they not reach my wife?': Shenzhen man slams police after wife drowns in flood
Housewife drowns waiting for police help after her car was trapped by floodwaters; similar incident occurred at same spot two years ago
A Shenzhen man has accused city police of being slow to respond after his wife drowned in her car while waiting for help during a flash flood on Friday.
Tong Xuxian died on her way to pick up her husband and nine-year-old son from a train station in the early morning when her car stalled in a flooded underpass during the city's heaviest rains in 20 years. The city had vowed to fix the drainage after a similar incident in 2011.
Tong's husband, Huang Sentian , 32, said his wife spent the final minutes of her life waiting in vain for Shenzhen police to rescue her before water engulfed her car.
"She phoned me at 4.40am to say she was trapped in the car and the water had risen above her knees," Huang said. "She was calm, because she called the police before phoning me."
Tong phoned again at 4.54am to say the water was rising fast. "I'm looking for a way out," Tong said. "Please don't worry. But the water is reaching my neck."
Even then, Huang never thought it would be his last conversation with his wife.
"My wife called our friends at 5.11am and, two minutes later, she redialed the number and mistook our friend for policemen. She cried: 'why can't you still reach me?'. That's the last call we received from her," Huang said.