Thousands flee as China lake bank feared broken

BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese fled tothe hills on Saturday amid fears a lake formed near theepicentre of this week's earthquake would burst its banks.

The water level at the lake formed after aftershocksblocked a river was rising rapidly in Beichuan and "may burstits bank at any time", the official Xinhua news agency said.

A paramilitary officer told Reuters the likelihood of thelake bursting its banks was "extremely big".

A witness said by telephone the military was evacuatingeveryone in Beichuan, even rescue workers.

A Reuters journalist fled an area near the Beichuan MiddleSchool, which President Hu Jintao visited on Friday. Soldierswere talking on the radio saying "all retreat" and there was alot of dust in the air. Troops were leaving fast.

China has said it expects the final death toll fromMonday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake to exceed 50,000. About 4.8million people have lost their homes and the days are numberedin which survivors can be found.

Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin, taking a long pause tocompose himself as he read from an updated casualty report at anews conference, put the death toll so far at 28,881.

Sichuan Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said more than 188,100people have been injured and about 10,600 people remain buriedunder rubble. About 2.6 million tents are needed to shelter 4.8million displaced residents, he added.

Hong Kong cable television said some 1.2 million peoplewere also being evacuated in Qingchuan, 90 km (55 miles)northeast of Beichuan, as rising waters threatened to burst alake's banks.

There has been growing concern about the safety of dams andreservoirs which have been weakened in the mountainous provinceof Sichuan, an area about the size of Spain.

A cable repair worker was killed on Saturday, five daysafter the original disaster, when hit by rocks as a moderateaftershock, one of hundreds, hit Lixian county.

Many survivors were also found, including a German touristwho was pulled from rubble in Wenchuan after being buried for114 hours, Xinhua said.

A 69-year-old villager was one of 33 people rescued inBeichuan. He was buried for 119 hours. Troops evacuated 18scientists trapped in a forest in nearby Mianzhu.

On Friday, soldiers pulled 2,538 people from rubble, only165 of whom were still alive, the cabinet spokesman said, anindication hope of finding survivors was slim.

"Although the time for the best chance of rescue, the first72 hours after an earthquake, has passed, saving lives remainsthe top priority of our work," President Hu told distraughtsurvivors just over a week after a jubilant China celebratedthe Olympic torch reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

BIGGEST SINCE THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION

Premier Wen Jiabao said the quake was "the biggest and mostdestructive" since before the Communist revolution of 1949 andthe quick response had helped reduce casualties.

That compares even with the 1976 tremor in the northerncity of Tangshan which killed up to 300,000 people.

And as the weather gets warmer, survivors were worriedabout hygiene and asking questions about their longer-termfuture.

"What we don't need now is more instant noodles," saidtruck driver Wang Jianhong in the city of Dujiangyan. "We wantto know now what will happen with our lives."

In Sichuan and neighbouring Chongqing, at least 17reservoirs have been damaged, with some dams cracked or leakingwater. Several are on the Min river, which tumbles through theworst-hit areas between the Tibetan plateau and the Sichuanplain.

The Lianhehua dam, built in the late 1950s northwest ofDujiangyan, showed cracks big enough to put a fist in.

"When the dam is in this shape, we cannot feel relaxed,"said farmer Feng Binggui who has moved from his village belowthe dam into the hills.

China is also on precautionary alert against possibleradiation leaks, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said.The country's chief nuclear weapons research lab is inMianyang, along with several secret atomic sites, but there areno nuclear power stations.

China has sent 150,000 troops to the disaster area, butroads buckled by the quake and blocked by landslides have madeit hard for supplies and rescuers to reach the worst-hit areas.

Offers of help have flooded in and foreign rescue teamsfrom Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore havearrived. Donations topped 6 billion yuan (438 million pounds).

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in Dujiangyan, GuoShipeng and Benjamin Kang Lim in Beijing, and Donny Kwok inHong Kong; Editing by Myra MacDonald)