CHINA HAS mobilised troops to help with flood relief and raised the disaster alert to the highest level after days of torrential rain that has pounded the country and looks set to continue over the weekend.
The current round of heavy rains, which have been falling since Monday, have caused 25 deaths, with 25 people unaccounted for, according to the ministry of civil affairs in Beijing, bringing the number of dead or missing since the rains began to 170.
Over the past two weeks, floods have forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes in central and southern China, many of them close to the Yangtze river.
The torrents battered 10 southern provinces and forced 671,200 people to evacuate their homes, the ministry said on its website.
The rains have triggered landslides and mudslides that have toppled homes and caused traffic chaos, with many flights cancelled in southern China.
In the southwest, parts of a railway line connecting Chengdu and Kunming were crushed by landslides, stranding 5,000 passengers on four trains overnight and affecting train services, the Xinhua news agency reported. Over 2,000 emergency workers were involved in rescuing the stranded people and reopening the line.
In Zhejiang on the east coast of China, the Qiantang river is 2.4 metres (2.6 yards) above safety levels. Water levels in the middle reaches of the Qiantang river were at their highest levels in more than half a century. A dyke breached and flooded 18 villages, while landslides toppled about 2,500 houses and flooded 350 roads.
There is little relief in sight. China’s top meteorological authority said yesterday rainstorms would continue to batter the south and east of the country over the weekend. Rainstorms are forecast to hit the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Zhejiang this weekend, the National Meteorological Centre said.