Authorities downstream on the Yangtze River braced themselves for high water racing towards them today as the city of Wuhan escaped flooding.

A thunderstorm packing high winds and torrential rains hit the area around central China’s Dongting Lake today, raising the threat to already strained dikes protecting several cities and dozens of villages.

Flood waters in central China’s vast Dongting Lake which threaten several cities and dozens of villages remained at dangerously high levels today - and could rise in the coming days as heavy rain was forecast.

The water level of a rain-swollen lake in central China today climbed far past the danger mark, increasing pressure on dikes that were keeping flood waters from swamping six cities and dozens of villages.

AS green floodwaters rose into homes beside a huge, rain-swollen lake in central China, yesterday, 800,000 workers were racing to shore up dykes that protect six Chinese cities and dozens of villages.