Firefighters helped save cattle as torrential rainfall hit southern China over the weekend.

The firemen responded to a local's distress call that a cattle shed was submerged in deep floods swamping Ji'An city in Jiangxi province on June 23.

Officers deployed rubber boats on which they carried young calves, while a rescuer known locally as 'Blue Friend' waded in the water to guide the rest of the cows across the deluge.

They dropped off the farm animals on higher ground to keep them from drowning.

The National Meteorological Center issued an orange rainstorm alert - the second most severe in the country's four-tiered warning system - on June 23 morning.

Local media reported that at least 10 people have died in Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, as weather forecasters warned of more heavy rain until June 24 afternoon.