BEIJING, Aug 21: Thousands of Chinese soldiers reinforced dykes around a lake the size of Luxembourg on Wednesday as it near bursting point, threatening millions of people, state media said.

China’s southern province of Hunan declared an official flood emergency from midday for the first time since 1998, when the worst floods in decades killed more than 4,000 people in China, state television news said.

More than 7,000 soldiers had been mobilised to reinforce embankments around Hunan’s Dongting Lake that shield more than 10 million people and 667,000 hectares of farmland, state radio said.

Dongting, China’s second largest freshwater lake and a key overflow for the flood-prone Yangtze river, had risen more than two metres over the 32 metre flood-warning mark in the past three days, a local flood control official said.

“Water levels in Dongting have reached 34.1 metres — that’s 2.1 metres above the flood warning mark and the highest level in nearly three years,” state television said.

Television news showed soldiers piling sandbags onto dykes and using bricks to block holes in embankments. More than 400,000 people, including soldiers and police, had been put on alert to help fight impending floods, it said.

But Dongting — which covers about 2,700 square kilometres — was still short of its historical high of 35.9 metres seen in 1998.

China’s summer floods have already killed more than 900 people.—Reuters