Soldiers of the People's Armed Police Force clean silt in the flooded old city area of Guangan, in south-west China's Sichuan province.

Hua Dinghong, 74, weeps over the destruction caused by flooding to his home in Hanzhong, north-west China's Shaanxi province.

Proving that the age of gallantry is not past, a man carries a woman across a flooded street in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

Residents survey the damage to houses that collapsed during the flooding in Guangan.

People negotiate the floods by boat in Quxian County, Sichuan province.

A woman householder glances up warily as though to check on the weather as she is evacuated by rescuers in Nanjing.

Elsewhere in Nanjing, a resident makes his way through the flood waters on a raft made from plastic basins.

And still the rain keeps falling in Nanjing, as a man paddles a rubber dingy up a submerged street.

And elsewhere in the city, a businessman counts the cost of flood damage to his shop.

Firemen rescue passengers from a coach that was trapped in the flooding in Guangan.