Rescuers race to reach those trapped by floods in China's Guangdong

Rescuers evacuate stranded residents on April 20 in the flood-hit city of Shaoguan, Guangdong province. - Xinhua

BEIJING: Rescuers on boats in China's flood-ravaged Guangdong province raced to evacuate trapped residents, carrying some elderly people by piggyback from their homes and deploying helicopters to save villagers caught in rural landslides.

The southern Chinese province has been battered by unusually heavy, sustained and widespread rainfall since Thursday (April 18), with powerful storms ushering in an earlier-than-normal start to the region's annual flooding season.