In the video, filmed in Huaihua, Hunan Province on Monday, the officer grabs onto ropes and a buoyancy aid thrown down to him from a bridge.

Heavy rain around China's Yangtze river basin has left more than 180 people dead and scores missing, media said Tuesday, with more damage feared from a typhoon expected to land this week.

Flooding has forced some 1.3 million people to evacuate vast areas near China's longest river and its connected waterways, the official Xinhua news agency cited the civil affairs ministry as saying.

Millions more are threatened by the continuing downpour, which began at the end of June and has already destroyed at least 41,000 homes, it said, Telegraph reported.

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