Four cities along China’s Yangtze river have declared top-level flood warnings over the past two days after torrential rain triggered landslides and inundated roads and farmland, with parts of the river threatening to burst its banks.

The “red alerts” in Xianning and Jingzhou in Hubei province and Nanchang and Shangrao in neighbouring Jiangxi highlight the country’s vulnerability to extreme weather from climate change and the risks of overdevelpment on flood plains, experts say.

About 140 people are dead or missing from the storms, while China"s state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday (July 10) that accumulated economic losses exceed USD 8.6 billion.