Chinese authorities declared a "level two emergency" after more than 100,000 travelers were trapped in and outside a railway station in southern China on Tuesday due to delayed journeys caused by freezing weather.

Most of the travelers were bound for home ahead of the Chinese New Year celebrations next week when they were left stranded at the Guangzhou's main train station after 23 trains were delayed due to poor weather condition.

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Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers were part of the people who surged into the railway station hoping to make it to their families to celebrate the Lunar New Year festivities on February 8, which will usher in the Year of the Monkey.

                                                      Freezing Weather

Freezing weather and snow have swept across the eastern and central China, delaying the 23 trains and leaving the travelers trapped in and around the station.

Photos of the mammoth crowd showed bodies packed together as people snaked their way through the train station. The severity of the delay prompted the Chinese police to declare a 'level two emergency'.

The local government  has deployed 3,000 police officers to secure the area and prevent any untoward incidents such as a stampede or rioting.

Guangzhou police chief Xie Xiaodan and Chen Rugui, a senior Communist party leader, were also deployed to the area to maintain peace and order.

                                                 Too many people

"There are too many people and it is too crowded," one passenger told the Chinese state-run news agency CCTV.

The 40-day New Year travel rush from January 21 to March 3 has left millions of travelers scrambling to get home to be with their families in time for the Lunar New Year.

China's Ministry of Transport said it is expecting the travelers--mostly migrant workers--to make more than 2 billion trips this year in what is often described as the largest annual human migration on earth.

The ministry said most of the travelers are migrant workers working in factories at China's heartlands and areas surrounding Guangzhou.

TagsLunar New Year, 100, railway station, freezing weather, migrant workers