China works to drain quake lake

Chinese soldiers were working around the clock on Tuesday to dig a giant sluice to ease pressure on a swelling "quake lake", with plans to evacuate 100,000 people to avert a new disaster, state media said.

China has put the death toll from the earthquake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 at 65,080, with the figure certain to rise as searchers account for more than 23,000 missing. More than 360,000 people were injured.

Soldiers and police trekked to the Tangjiashan lake carrying dynamite ready to blast the mud and rubble blocking the flow of water from a river and creating one of 35 quake lakes formed after landslides triggered by the massive tremor.

Some 30,000 people living below the lake in and around Beichuan in the mountainous southwestern province have been evacuated as a precaution, but Xinhua news agency said 100,000 more would be moved. It did not say where to.

"It's better for them to complain about the trouble that the evacuation would bring than to shed tears after the possible danger," Liu Ning, an official with the Ministry of Water Resources, was quoted as saying.

The lake had risen to 725.3 metres (2,380 feet) on Monday, only 26 metres below the lowest part of the barrier, he said.

By Monday night, around 600 engineers and soldiers had gathered at the landslip and were taking turns to work through the night.

"Because of the lack of tents, some soldiers had to sleep outdoors on the blockage at night," Xinhua said.

RISK OF AFTERSHOCKS

The Communist Party's decision-making Politburo warned on Monday that the situation remained "grim" and relief work arduous for the "most destructive" tremor recorded since before the birth of modern China in 1949.

The massive relief effort, which involves food, tents and clothing for millions, as well as reconstructing housing and getting help to isolate villages, is expected to take up to three years.

The most powerful of thousands of aftershocks killed at least eight people on Sunday, hampering relief efforts and terrifying quake survivors anew.

"There is still a possibility that an aftershock of five to six magnitude will happen in the area," Yuan Hailiang, an official with the Chengdu relief bureau, was quoted by the Beijing News as saying. "But people do not need to be nervous."

The biggest appeal is for tents for 5 million homeless people as the weather turns warmer and wetter, risking the spread of disease. President Hu Jintao chaired another meeting on Monday to decide where resources would be best deployed.

Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang said that within a month, 900,000 tents would be distributed. Within three months, one million temporary housing units would be supplied.

"And we will not just focus on housing, there are also hospitals and schools for which we will find a way to provide 500,000 more units," he said. "We will make sure that these evacuees have a more comfortable place to stay before the cold weather sets in."