Water levels in central China's flood-prone Dongting Lake are slowly receding, but as the flood peak rolled further downstream concerns emerged that the vast industrial city of Wuhan could turn into the next danger zone.
Officials in Wuhan declared a state of emergency as the city's million residents braced for rising waters.
Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, was threatened by floods in 1998 and water there breached the warning line by 15 centimetres yesterday.
So far, no major incident has occurred along the main part of the Yangtze River dykes, but in the next two days more rain is forecast in the area and water levels are due to top the warning line along the entire middle reaches of the river.
So far more than 1.7 million people have been affected by small-scale flooding and are threatened by potentially massive flooding around the lake.
More than 600,000 people have been relocated from the region, one of the most densely populated in China and a key agricultural production area, according to official figures.
Around 900 people have died in a series of floods and landslides around China this summer.
AFP