China’s meteorological agency Saturday issued warnings for a heat wave and torrential rains, calling for precautionary measures.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) issued an orange alert for the heat wave, as temperatures in areas including in parts of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hubei and Shandong, rise above 35 degrees centigrade Saturday.

Parts of those regions could see temperatures surpass 40 degrees.

The agency also issued a blue alert for torrential rain Saturday and Sunday in parts of Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Southwest Hubei will receive precipitation of 100-120 millimeters.

The agency asked relevant departments to take precautionary measures to prepare for potential landslides and floods.

Citizens watch the flood on a bridge in Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan Province, July 2, 2017. Days of torrential rain in Hunan Province raised the water level of the Xiangjiang River, a major tributary of Yangtze River, to exceed its record flood level Sunday morning. (Xinhua/Long Hongtao)

A total of 44 people have died or are missing after floods hit Ningxiang County in central China’s Hunan Province, local flood control headquarters said Friday.

Heavy downpours since June 22 have led to the area’s worst natural disaster in 60 years.

About 815,000 people, or 56 percent of the county’s population, suffered property damage in the floods, it said.

In south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, floods have left 26 dead and 8 missing since heavy rain started on July 1, according to the regional civil affairs department. More than 1.88 million people suffered losses in the disaster, which damaged 108,000 hectares of crops and flattened 6,102 houses. Direct economic losses have exceeded 7.8 billion yuan (1.15 billion U.S. dollars).

Torrential rain since late June has caused flooding along several tributaries of the Yangtze, China’s longest river.

The level of the Xiangjiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze, exceeded its record level Sunday morning.

Since Saturday, reservoirs in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze have managed to control the flood, holding back more than 10 billion cubic meters of water, according to the Yangtze flood control and drought relief headquarters.

The efforts made by the Three Gorges Reservoir and upper reservoirs on the Jinsha River in the upper reaches of the Yangtze, and Yalong River, Jinsha’s tributary, have greatly reduced water levels of rivers and lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, the headquarters said.

According to the headquarters, local water authorities have spent 100 million yuan repairing 42 sections of bank along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, which collapsed due to floods last year, the most severe since 1998.

Four people were killed while nine others were injured in a string of hit-and-runs by a car in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, local police said Saturday.

A car ploughed into several pedestrians in a neighborhood in Jingjiang city at 8:27 p.m. Friday, a police officer said. After the incident, the car did not stop but continued the rampage.

The victims were rushed to hospital where four died despite medical treatment, while the nine injured are believed to be in stable condition.

The driver was caught in nearby Taixing city. Police found that he had taken poison in an attempt to commit suicide. He is receiving emergency treatment.

The incident is under investigation.