Floods continue to cause devastation in China

Heavy rains have triggered more floods and landslides across southern China as teams of emergency workers race to construct additional channels around a leaking dam in China's Qinghai province.

Emergency workers are struggling to construct extra drainage channels around the leaking Wenquan reservoir, as it threatens to flood a nearby city in southern China. If it bursts, the city of Golmud and its 200,000 inhabitants could be flooded with water of up to four metres.

Heavy rains and flooding have led to the deaths of over 400 people in the past few weeks, and state media says more than 17 million people in nine provinces have been affected.

China's meteorological agency is forecasting more rain for the next three days in the eastern and central regions around the Yangtze river.

It is reported that at least three more people have died, while over 50 are missing in China's southwest Yunnan province, after torrential rains triggered landslides.

On Monday, rescue workers carried stranded students from their flooded school in southern China, while overall flooding has caused $1 billion in damage and destroyed more than 800,000 hectares of farmland and 20,000 buildings.