Flood-hit dyke in south China suffers new breach

A flood-battered dyke in China suffered a fresh breach on Wednesday as heavy flooding that has killed nearly 200 people in the past week intensified and about 100,000 residents fled after an earlier break in its wall.

The Fu River in Jiangxi province first burst through the protective Changkai Dyke late on Monday after days of torrential rain, threatening areas near the small city of Fuzhou.

The river punched through the embankment again early on Wednesday, said the official Xinhua news agency. Residents whose homes were threatened had already been evacuated at night, it said.

Troops in orange vests used boats to search for stranded residents and take them to safety.

"Our homes were not flooded, but at 2am the waters began to rise quite fast, so we hurried to pack our things and leave," said one resident, who only gave his last name, Wu.

Heavy rains 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.

More than 2.38 million people have been evacuated, although many are moved only short distances.

The floods have caused economic losses of around 42.12 billion yuan ($6.20 billion), with over 1.6 million hectares of farmland flooded and about 1,95,000 houses collapsing.

The emergency has evoked memories of severe flooding in China in 1998, when then premier Zhu Rongji complained that many flood-prevention dykes were shoddy piles of "tofu dregs" - the refuse from making tofu - left vulnerable by lax officials.

This time, the country's leaders appear determined to use the flood threat as a show of national strength, and the rescue effort is receiving intense attention in state media.

But an unnamed senior disaster prevention official told the official Beijing Daily that "some weak links require attention".

"Especially along medium-sized and smaller rivers, flood prevention standards are lower, and as soon as a major flood happens there's an extreme likelihood of dangers," the report cited the official as saying.

More than 15,000 people, including troops and police officers, were attempting to staunch the Changkai Dyke breach with sandbags and other material, official news reports said.

Officials rushed to seal the first breach in the dyke that expanded to 400m (437 yards), swallowing chunks of the 82km-long (51mile-long) barrier protecting a low-lying farming area with about 1,50,000 residents.

By Wednesday, troops and officials had shepherded to safety 1,00,000 people whose homes were flooded or threatened, Xinhua said. It said there had been no casualties to date.

President Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao called for "all-out efforts to combat floods and save lives" following the dyke's collapse, Xinhua reported.

Nearly every year, parts of China endure deadly floods. The National Meteorological Centre has warned that the current rains could keep pounding parts of the south until Saturday.

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 rest of the week.

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.