Safety hammers selling out after Beijing downpour

After the Chinese capital suffered its worst downpour in six decades on Saturday, Beijing's residents are making sure they know how to survive such treacherous weather in future.

The downpour left at least 37 people dead, including a 34-year-old man who failed to escape his car after it became submerged in floodwater.

Rescuers later found he had fractured his skull, probably in attempting to smash open the car's window.

The man's death triggered online discussions about how to escape a car in such a situation.

Videos and pictures have sprung up on the Internet to equip residents with survival skills. A search for "car survival" produced millions of results.

Many posts suggested people keep an emergency hammer or scissors in their cars.

Since the rainstorm, emergency hammers have been in high demand at online stores such as Taobao and 360buy. On Taobao.com, car hammers sales surged by 598 percent year on year, while the search volume for life-saving hammers saw a 17-fold increase.

Beijing residents are the main customers, with more than 1,080 people having bought hammers on Taobao from Saturday to Monday.

"I hope I don't need to use the hammer, but ensuring that I have one is the responsible thing to do for my family and myself," said a man surnamed Li, who works in a college in east Beijing. He bought a hammer after he heard about the man drowning in his car.

"The public's discussion of survival skills is good, which indicates people's enhanced safety awareness," said Professor Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociologist with the Renmin University of China.

"But to popularize first-aid knowledge among the people and give everyone more opportunities to survive in disasters is the government's duty to the public," said Zhou, adding that people should not rely on online gossip.

Torrential rain has ravaged 22 provincial-level regions in China since July 20, leaving 111 people dead and another 47 missing, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

The rains have also driven more insurance companies to stop car insurance concerning water damage, which had not been regarded as a must in city noted for its dry weather.

A telephone operator at China Pacific Insurance Co Ltd said she had been busy with queries about water-damaged engines recently.

The Beijing branch of China Insurance Regulatory Commission said auto insurance companies in Beijing received 27,459 claims in three days, worth a total of 220 million yuan (US$34.4 million).