China floods force more than 550,000 to flee

BEIJING - China has mobilized its military and raised its disaster alert to the highest level amid severe river flooding that has prompted evacuation of more than half a million people, according to a Reuters report.

The report, which cited the official China Daily, said more than 550,000 have fled from low-lying areas in seven provinces and one municipality along the flooded Yangtze River.

Meanwhile, a flooded river in the country's east rose to its highest level in more than 50 years. The Qiantang River, Zhejiang province's main waterway, is at 7.9 feet above safety levels - the highest it has been since 1955.

In the face of the disasters, the government has raised its alert to level 4, according to Reuters. The landslides and mudslides have toppled homes, and the torrential rains that caused them are forecast to continue. The flooding has left 105 people dead and 65 missing.

In the southwest, 5,000 passengers on four trains were stranded after landslides buried parts of a railway line.

Over 2,000 rescuers with 10 excavators rushed to clear the Chengdu-Kunming railway, which links the provincial capitals of Sichuan and Yunnan, the Chengdu Railway Bureau said in a statement, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The bureau has sent food and water to the trapped passengers, and buses to evacuate them, the statement said.

Elsewhere in the coastal province, a dike breached and flooded 18 villages while landslides toppled about 2,500 houses and flooded 350 roads, Xinhua said. This week's rains have also forced 120,000 residents in Zhejiang alone to leave their homes.

The country's weather agency said a new round of downpours began Friday.