China evacuates 100,000 people due to Yangtze flood

Chinese authorities have had to evacuate 100,000 people homes living on the upper reaches of China’s Yangtze river from their homes due to the risk of flooding.

The floods are also threatening a 1,200-year-old world heritage site.

Staff, police and volunteers used sandbags to try to protect the 71-metre (233-foot) Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan province.

Sichuan raised moved to its maximum emergency response level on Tuesday to cope with a new round of torrential rainfall.

The Three Gorges Project, a massive hydroelectric facility designed in part to tame floods on the Yangtze, is expected to see water inflows rise to 74,000 cubic metres per second on Wednesday.

Water stored behind the dam, which restricts the amount of water flowing downstream by storing it in its reservoir, is 10 metres above its official warning level and has been so for over a month.

The facility was forced to raise water discharge volumes on Tuesday in order to “reduce flood control pressures”, the water ministry said.