The Qijiang River in Southwest China's Chongqing experienced its first round of flooding in this year on Monday, marking the strongest rainfall in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River since the flood season began.

(Photo: CCTV News)

The Chongqing hydrological monitoring station issued a red flood alert at noon on Monday warning that the Qijiang River would see major flooding over the next eight hours. 

(Photo: CCTV News)

At 18:30 Monday, the highest water level at Wucha Station on the river reached 205.56 meters, surpassing the safe level by 5.05 meters. This was one centimeter higher than that in the catastrophic flood season in 1998, the worst on record.

(Photo: Chinanews.com)

The local government evacuated over 40,000 residents near the river and no casualties have been reported so far, according to the Qijiang district's Publicity Department.

(Photo: Chinanews.com)

Multiple roads collapsed in the city’s Youyang Tujia and Miao autonomous county and Feng Jie county amid the strong rainstorms.

Workers clear falling rocks from a flooded section on a highway in Youyang Tujia and Miao autonomous county in Southwest China's Chongqing after a rainstorm hit the area, June 13, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

Chongqing in Southwest China, surrounded by the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, upgraded its emergency response to the flood from level to IV to level III on Monday afternoon.

(Photo: CCTV News)

This is the first time the Chongqing monitoring station has issued a red alert, the highest level of flood warning on the Qijiang River, since the station was built in 1940.

(Compiled by Han Xiaomeng; with input from China Daily)