100,000 evacuated as floods hit China
Loading...
Sunday, July 25, 2010
China has evacuated more than 100,000 people as Yangtze river burst its banks.
China is grappling with its worst flooding in a decade, with at least 1,100 people killed or missing this year, and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao warned there was possibly worse to come during an inspection tour of flood-hit Hubei province.
Warning the situation was at a "crucial stage," Mr Wen called for stepped-up flood prevention amid expected further flooding, according to a state TV report that showed him wading through knee-deep Yangtze floodwaters in the city of Wuhan.
At least 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes in south-western Sichuan province after torrential rains caused waters to rise sharply in the Jialing River, a provincial news website said.
The Jialing is a major tributary of the Yangtze, China's longest river.
In Shaanxi province, to the north of Sichuan, the Luofu river burst its banks in the city of Huayin, forcing 6,400 people from their homes, official Xinhua news agency said.
About 16 square kilometres of land was expected to be flooded as a result, it quoted a city official as saying. The Luofu feeds into the Yellow river, China's second-longest.
The flooding, mostly in the country's southern half, has caused economic losses of at least $25 billion and affected 120 million people, the government has said.