Police transport people in flood-stricken residential to a safe place. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Jiangsu Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters raised the level of emergency flood control response for southern cities to level II over the weekend, as heavy rains persisted.

Heavy rainfall over the weekend raised the water level of the Grand Canal to the highest on record. Cities of Nanjing, Wuxi, Changzhou and Suzhou issued the flood warning.

The appearance of a 'suspended river' at the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in Wuxi also caused authorities to close navigation in the southern Jiangsu section for the first time in its history.

Torrential rains on June 30 has led to severe flooding in some areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Jianghuai area, threatening people's livelihoods.

In Liyang, a county-level city of Changzhou, an area of 3,000 mu (200 hectares), including some towns, was flooded. In Wuxi's county-level city of Yixing, a 14-year-old girl was found dead after being swept away by floodwaters, while an elderly woman lost her life after slipping into a pool.

To combat flooding, tens of thousands of people across the province have joined the disaster relief efforts in rain-affected regions.

Armed police forces join disaster relief efforts at an embankment along the Qinhuai River in Nanjing on July 3. [Photo/Xinhua]