The Three Gorges Dam, sitting in the middle reach of the Yangtze River in Central China's Hubei province, on Saturday released water for the first time this year.

Engineers opened three sluice gates to discharge some 32,000 cubic meters of water per second and another sluice gate to release floating objects.

The flood from the upper stream reaching the dam was measured at 36,000 cubic meters of water per second and could increase to 39,000 cubic meters per second by Sunday, dam officials said.[Photo/Xinhua]