Ship lock of dam on Yangtze River leaking water

A horizontal penetrating crack has appeared on a gate in the number 3 ship lock of China's Gezhouba dam on the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province, causing serious leakage of water from the reservoir.

An undated photo of China's Gezhouba dam on the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province. [File Photo: sina.com.cn]

The leakage is difficult to be stopped and poses potential hazard, Xinhua news agency reports, citing the Three Gorges Navigation Administration.

Emergency repair will be launched around 1:00pm Monday and is expected to be finished in five days.

The administration has made arrangement of the navigation of ships through the number 1 and 2 locks and will notify ships of navigation coordination plans via the Internet, GPS terminals, text messages and fax.

China finished building the Gezhouba dam, the first of its kind on the main body of the Yangtze River, in 1988.