Dramatic river rescue filmed in China

Emergency workers came to the rescue of two maintenance men trapped on a sandbar in the middle of a raging river amid heavy flooding in Sichuan province. Chinese state television broadcast footage of the dramatic rescue of two maintenance workers trapped on a sandbar in the middle of a raging river amid heavy flooding that has forced thousands to evacuate their homes. The two men had been carrying out work on the Shitingjiang bridge in the western province of Sichuan when they found themselves stranded in the middle of the swollen Shiting river. The workers were carrying out maintenance using an excavator when they were surrounded by the rising flood waters some 30 metres from the riverbank on Monday afternoon. The local fire department sent a firefighter named Chen Jian to the island to coordinate the rescue effort and pull the two trapped workers back to safety. Torrential rain has triggered floods and landslides in Sichuan and other parts of China in recent days. China's Civil Affairs Ministry announced on Tuesday that flooding in Sichuan since Sunday has affected an area that is home to 360,000 people, damaging or destroying 300 homes, and forcing 6,100 people to evacuate. Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10169605/Nailbiting-escape-for-Chinese-men-stranded-by-floodwaters.html Get the latest headlines http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Subscribe to The Telegraph http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=telegraphtv Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/telegraph.co.uk Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/telegraph Follow us on Google+ https://plus.google.com/102891355072777008500/ Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Daily Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.