Almost a million workers were battling this afternoon to save one of China's most densely-populated regions from catastrophic floods, as water levels in a vast lake and surrounding river continued to rise.
Army units were working around the clock alongside police officers and civilians to shore up dikes and embankments on Dongting Lake in the central province of Hunan.
Others could be seen waiting in tents erected on top of embankments alongside mountainous piles of sandbags, ready to plug leaks as Dongting continued to swell.
Some lakeside houses were already totally submerged in parts of Yueyang, a large town next to where the Yangze River exits the lake, while locals negotiated flooded alleys in boats.
Dongting acts as a flood catchment for the historically flood-prone Yangtze, sparking fears for the safety of 7.5 million people in Wuhan, which sits on the river further downstream.
"If Dongting lake bursts its banks, then water flowing down the Yangtze could threaten neighbouring Hubei Province and its capital Wuhan," the state-run China Dailywarned.
Changsha, Hunan's capital city of 5.5 million people on the Xiang River upstream from Dongting, "is in serious danger of being hit by floods", the newspaper added.
As rain-swollen rivers emptied into the lake, around 850,000 were working on anti-flood measures throughout the region, it said.