CHENGDU, 18 Aug

Southwest China's Sichuan Province on Tuesday activated its highest-level flood-control response for the first time on record, as rain-induced floods ravaged parts of the province.

The province's flood control and drought relief headquarters raised the response to Level I, the highest in the four-tier emergency response system, at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

The Ya'an section of the Qingyi River was hit by one of the major floods in a hundred years, while water levels in the entire Qingyi River basin, as well as the lower reaches of Dadu River and Minjiang River are expected to exceed warning levels. 

Xinhua