A flooded river in south China has breached a dyke and threatens 145,000 residents, as heavy rains which have killed almost 200 people so far batter much of the region, state media reported today.
The Fu River in Jiangxi province burst through a protective embankment late yesterday, threatening the nearby city of Fuzhou.
Officials scrambled to plug the breach and move residents living near the Changkai Dyke, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.
About 68,000 people were shifted to safer ground and 1,200 were rescued from the inundation, Xinhua reported. Nobody died because of the breach.
More than 10,000 people, including troops and police officers, were attempting to staunch the breach with sandbags and other material, Xinhua added.
President Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao have called for "all-out efforts to combat floods and save lives" following the dyke's collapse, it said.
State television showed pictures taken from a helicopter of what it described as a "boundless expanse of water", covering farmland, roads and residential areas.
Heavy rain across much of southern China over the last week have killed at least 199 people and left 123 missing, as rivers broke their banks and landslides severed road and rail links, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
The floods have caused economic losses of around 42.12 billion yuan ($6.20 billion) so far, with over 1.6 million hectares of farmland flooded and about 195,000 houses collapsing, it added.
In parts of Fujian and Guangdong province more than 100 cm (39 inches) of rain has fallen in the past few days, state media said. More rain is forecast for the the rest of the week.
The downpours have triggered flash floods, inundated crops, disrupted traffic and telecommunications, forcing the evacuation of more than 2.38 million people, said the ministry.
In Guangxi region, officials are worried that some of the hundreds of dams there with construction problems could be vulnerable to the high waters, the China Youth Daily reported.
Wang Lijia, an official with the water resources bureau of Nanning, capital of Guangxi, said 245 dams near the city needed repairs to strengthen them. "These dilapidated dams constitute a major threat to Nanning," said Mr Wang, according to the paper.
Many of the people displaced by the floods live on low-lying land next to rivers that has been cleared by building dykes. When floods threaten, they are often moved to higher ground nearby.
The worst hit were the provinces and regions of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi. Some of these areas had been suffering a severe drought a few months ago.
Reuters