Thousands flee on China lake bank fears

BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese fled theirhomes on Saturday amid fears a lake could burst its banks,hampering rescue efforts after the deadliest earthquake in morethan three decades killed about 29,000 people.

Rescue workers returned to Beichuan county, near theepicentre of the quake, in Sichuan province, but many residentswere too frightened to return, nervous about a lake formedafter aftershocks triggered landslides blocking the flow of ariver.

"After briefly evacuating, rescue work returned to normalat Beichuan," an official Web site (www.china.com.cn) said,blaming the evacuation on a false alarm.

A paramilitary officer had told Reuters earlier that thelikelihood of the lake bursting its banks was "extremely big".

The situation was "very dangerous because there are stilltremors causing landslides that could damage the dam", said LuoGang, a building worker who left the southeastern port city ofXiamen and rushed home to look for his missing fiancee.

Rescue work had been complicated by bad weather,treacherous terrain and hundreds of aftershocks.

The United States Geological Survey reported a tremor of6.1 magnitude centred 49 miles (80 km) west of Guangyuan, thelatest in a series of aftershocks to hit Sichuan province.China's official Xinhua news agency said there was no immediateword from the area of additional damage or casualties.

"Although the time for the best chance of rescue ... haspassed, saving lives remains the top priority of our work,"President Hu Jintao told distraught survivors just over a weekafter a jubilant China celebrated the Olympic torch relayreaching the summit of Mount Everest.

As the weather becomes warmer, survivors were worried abouthygiene and asked questions about their longer-term future.

"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."

Officials plan to distribute 0.5 kg (1.102 lb) of food anda 10 yuan ($1.43) subsidy each day to people with financialdifficulties in quake-hit areas for three months, Xinhuareported, after a meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

They also want to install mobile homes, temporaryclassrooms and clinics for quake-affected people.

PEOPLE TENSE

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.

In Sichuan and neighbouring Chongqing, 17 reservoirs weredamaged, with some dams cracked or leaking water. Several areon the Min river, which tumbles through the worst-hit areasbetween the Tibetan plateau and the Sichuan plain.

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 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.

Premier Wen 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.

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.

A cable repair worker was killed on Saturday, three monthsbefore Beijing hosts the summer Olympics, when hit by rocks asa moderate aftershock hit Lixian county.

President Hu lauded rescue workers for their bravery inWenchuan, epicentre of the quake, when an aftershock struck.

In a glimmer of hope that more people could be found alive,33 people were rescued in Beichuan, including a 69-year-oldvillager who had been buried for 119 hours. Troops evacuated 18scientists trapped in a forest in nearby Mianzhu.

China is on precautionary alert against possible radiationleaks, a government Web site said. The country's chief nuclearweapons research lab is in Mianyang, along with several secretatomic sites, but there are no 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.

(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng and Benjamin Kang Limin Beijing and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong; Writing by BenjaminKang Lim; Editing by Peter Millership)