File photo of Hanjiang River

WUHAN, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Recent rainfall has caused flooding of the Hanjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, triggering an emergency response in central China's Hubei Province.

The province started a Grade-IV response to the situation at 8 p.m. Thursday, which meant stepping up flood prevention work such as dam checks and public announcements.

"It is a moderate flood," said Jiang Yansheng, deputy chief engineer with the Hubei Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

The accumulative precipitation in upper Hanjiang since Sept. 25 has reached 207 millimeters, according to the headquarters.

The maximum inflow of the Danjiangkou reservoir on the Hanjiang, reached 17,300 cubic meters per second. The reservoir increased its outflow to its maximum of 8,040 cubic meters per second.

The river level at Huangzhuang hit 48.04 meters, exceeding the warning level by 4 centimeters, on Thursday afternoon.