Rising water levels in the lower reaches of the Yellow River have forced authorities in east China's Shandong Province to open a sluice to ease flood pressure on the river.

Continuous rainfall since last Thursday has raised the water level of Dongping Lake, the second largest lake in the province at the lower reaches of the Yellow River, to 43.64 meters, 64 centimeters above the warning level, an official with the Shandong bureau of the Yellow River Conservancy Commission said.

Workers used two dredgers to breach levees embanking the lake, and the runoff reached 555 cubic meters per second, he said.

More than 1,300 people are stacking sandbags, patrolling the area and monitoring flood risks along the lake.

Floods triggered by torrential rainstorms have exacted a heavy toll on the province. More than 181 miners were still trapped in two separate flooded coal mines in Shandong on Monday, the fourth day since the flooding.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2007)