Liu Xiaopeng, a firefighter, uses ropes to rescue a stranded child with the help of comrade in Dawu county, Hubei province, on Friday. (Photo by Wang Jida/China Daily)
As torrential rain continues to cause deadly floods along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there have been many miraculous rescues and tales of heroism.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated in downpours that have left at least 128 people dead and 42 others missing in 11 provincial Chinese regions since Thursday. Anhui has been one of the worst-hit provinces.
Police officers in Bowang District, Ma'anshan City of Anhui rescued a blind 80-year-old woman besieged by flood water by pushing her out of her home in a buoyant drinking water vat.
In the early hours of Saturday, the officers received a report that the lady living alone on the second floor of a building near the swollen Bowang River was in danger, as the first floor had been submerged.
The police car was forced to stop about 500 meters from her home and four policemen reached her after wading through the chest-deep water.
Since there was no boat available, she was carried into the vat, common in rural Chinese homes, police officer Hou Yan told Xinhua.
Around the same time, a river breached its banks and grew to about 4.5 miles wide in Lu'an City, threatening the lives of 46,000 people. To find a way to those trapped, six firefighters and local officials had to wade for nearly four miles through rushing floodwater.
Pu Qianqian is a "chengguan," or urban management officer, but in the past few days he has been on the front line of saving lives in Qianshan County, Anqing City.
"My usual job is to oversee sanitation, but these days I'm a rescuer," Pu said, standing outside his office, wearing a raincoat.
Late on Friday night, he and 23 other chengguan arrived in Youba Township to prevent a dike breaching on the Wanhe River. They used sandbags to shore up the dike. "There are few young people in the countryside nowadays, so the locals have only us to count on," he said.
More than 2,000 tourists were evacuated from Anhui's Tiantangzhai Forest Park on Saturday as the area was hit by mountain floods.
Tour guide Wang Li led a 24-strong group to check in to a hotel in the park on Thursday night, only for rain-triggered landslides and floods to block their route back out. Telecommunications and electric supply were also disrupted.
