More than 23,000 people have been forced to evacuate after heavy downpour hit a peninsula on the southern tip of south China's Guangdong Province, a spokesman with the provincial flood control headquarters said Saturday.

A violent downpour started to hit the Leizhou peninsula on Thursday and continued to pelt the area until 1:00 p.m. Saturday. The Tangjia Township in Leizhou City, which was worst hit, received 739 millimeters of precipitation in 24 hours, the heaviest rainfall in 200 years.

The rainfall pushed water levels at two hydrological stations in Leizhou to new records, and fed five reservoirs in the neighboring Zhanjiang City to warning marks.

The Dawan reservoir in Zhanjiang had been threatened with two overflow risks, and local flood fighters had to dig spillways to bring the water level down.

The headquarters sent 35 militiamen to help people in Leizhou relocate on Friday evening and Saturday morning, and summoned six hydrological experts to direct flood fight work at the reservoirs.

They also called 500 soldiers from the Chinese People's Liberation Army stationed in the province to help fight the flood. The State Flood Control Office has sent a team of experts to the area.

Weather forecast said more cloudburst are expected on the peninsula Saturday night, and the province will see more rainfalls in the coming three days.

Meanwhile, more than 700 workers are repairing the rails on a section of Yuehai Railway, China's first cross-strait railway linking Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, to Haikou on the island province of Hainan. The railway was destroyed by torrential currents which inundated the rail-bed and distorted rails.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2007)