The highest, red level of danger was declared on Monday in the eastern province of Jiangxi due to the floods caused by heavy rains, Xinhua agency reports.

According to local authorities, the Chang Jiang and Xuhe rivers left their banks for the first time in 2022. In the next four days, the water level in China's largest freshwater lake Poyang is predicted to continue rising above the critical level by 0.4 meters.

Floods caused by torrential rains forced authorities to evacuate over 160,000 people from disaster areas, with at least one local resident killed. Tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land were flooded.

China has a four-tiered disaster warning system that includes blue, yellow, orange and red.