Flood risk for 220,000 because of illegal kilns

SHANGHAI: Thousands of villagers in central China's Henan province face the risk of flooding - thanks to brick kilns that were built illegally on the banks of the Yellow River.

In Yuanyang county, 129 clay brick factories stand next to China's second-longest river, the Beijing-based China Youth Daily reported on Friday.

Factory workers have dug along the anti-flood bank and piled bricks upon it, posing a risk of it failing and flooding seven towns that were similarly overwhelmed in August 1996 after a bank was breached, the report said.