Around 100,000 people have been evacuated from areas on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River of China as flooding threatened a 1,200-year-old World Heritage Site.

According to the details, staff, police, and volunteers used sandbags to try and protect the 233-foot Leshan Giant Buddha.

Leshan Giant Buddha is a UNESCO World Heritage site in southwestern Sichuan province, as muddy water rose over its toes for the first time since 1949.

Sichuan, situated along the Yangtze, raised its emergency response to the maximum level this week to cope with a new round of torrential rainfall.

The Yangtze Water Resources Commission, the government body that oversees the river, declared a red alert, saying water at some monitoring stations was expected to exceed “guaranteed” flood protection levels by more than five meters (16.4 feet).