By Chris Buckley and John Ruwitch
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 go home, worried about a lake formedafter aftershocks triggered landslides blocking a river.
"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.
President Hu Jintao urged emergency workers not to give upefforts to find survivors of Monday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake.Thousands of people are believed to remain trapped underrubble.
"We should put people first and saving people's lives isstill the top priority of the relief work," he said.
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.
Hu also praised international help given to China.
"I express heartfelt thanks to the foreign governments andinternational friends that have contributed to our quake-reliefwork," Xinhua quoted Hu as saying.
Offers of help have flooded in and foreign rescue teamsfrom Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore havearrived. Donations topped 6.0 billion yuan (438 millionpounds).
FEARS FOR FUTURE
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 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.
China has said it expects the final death toll from theearthquake to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have losttheir homes and the days are numbered in which survivors can befound.
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.
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.
(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng and Benjamin Kang Limin Beijing and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong; Writing by BenjaminKang Lim; Editing by Keith Weir)
