Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, southwest China - April 5, 2017
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Hailstorm sweeping across road
2. Hailstones hitting car windshield
3. Various of accumulated hailstones, reporter picking up handful of hail
4. Vehicles moving through flooded street
5. Various of police officer Yang Ying directing traffic
6. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Yang Ying, police officer (Starting with Shot 5):
"Our sub-office has been working on the second-tier contingency plan. All police officers, no matter if they are off-duty or on-call, were ordered to get to work and control the traffic in this district."
7. Municipal administration worker dredging water
8. Soldier carrying resident on back through floodwater
9. Various of police officers directing traffic
10. Various of traffic navigating through flooded streets
11. Firefighter wading through pile of hail, searching for trapped residents
12. Firefighter leading trapped residents out of hailstones
13. Residents walking over hailstones

A ferocious hailstorm and heavy rain battered the city of Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, causing scenes of chaos across the city on Wednesday night.

The downtown was seriously flooded by the deluge, with the precipitation level rising to 23 millimeters in an hour. The dramatic hailstorm brought traffic to a standstill as huge hailstones pelted the city, with the largest having a diameter of 15 millimeters.

Police officers were mobilized to important intersections to direct the traffic amid the challenging weather conditions.

"Our sub-office has been working on the second-tier contingency plan. All police officers, no matter if they are off-duty or on-call, were ordered to get to work and control the traffic in this district," said Yang Ying, a local police officer.

As well as police, firefighters, city management officers, and municipality administration workers were deployed to places where they were most needed to help drain water and ensure people's safety.

It was reported that two residents were trapped after hailstones accumulated up to their waists in the basement of a building.

A firefighter jumped into the marble-sized hails and waded towards the trapped people, eventually helping them to safety.

According to firefighting authorities, a total of 71 people were rescued overnight.

Traffic returned to normal after the water was drained at around 01:00 in the morning.