Film footage used by Chinese and foreign journalists to record Japanese bombings of Chongqing Municipality in southwest China about 60 years ago has been discovered.

A documentary running for 40 minutes has been edited from the original film footage, and was shown to the public Tuesday.

Li Hua, deputy director of the Chongqing Cultural Bureau, said the newly discovered film, which runs for six hours, is the most detailed film record of the Japanese bombings of the city during the 1930s and 1940s.

It adds more evidence of the Japanese aggression against China at that time, Li said.

From 1938 to August 1943, the Japanese air force flew more than 6,800 sorties, bombing Chongqing night and day, causing huge life and property losses to the local people.

On June 5, 1941 alone, about 2,500 residents who had taken shelter from the bombing in a tunnel in downtown Chongqing were suffocated to death.

Photographers from China, Germany, France, the United States and some other countries filmed major scenes of the bombings. Japanese photographers also filmed the bombings to flaunt their "victories".

(Xinhua 06/06/2001)