Engineers have completed work to drain a lake formed by last month’s earthquake that had threatened to inundate towns downstream and add to the toll of China’s deadliest natural disaster in more than 30 years. Authorities have evacuated 197 000 people from areas at risk of flooding and drawn up contingency plans.
A Chinese lake damaged by an earthquake may be about to burst its banks, state media said on Saturday, as President Hu Jintao headed for the epicentre with the death toll expected to rise to 50 000. Meanwhile, survivors were found on Saturday, five days after the disaster, including a German tourist who was pulled from the rubble.
The toll from China’s deadliest earthquake in decades climbed to nearly 15 000 on Wednesday as thousands of troops, firefighters and common civilians battled to save thousands of people buried under rubble and mud. The government sent 50 000 troops to south-western Sichuan province to dig for victims.
China’s biggest earthquake for a generation left tens of thousands dead, missing or buried under the rubble of crushed communities on Tuesday, plunging the nation into an all-out aid effort. Rescue teams struggled by air, land and water to reach the areas of south-western China stricken by the huge quake that demolished schools, homes and factories.
Heavy rainfall and wrecked roads hampered rescuers’ efforts to reach the areas hardest-hit by China’s worst earthquake in three decades on Tuesday as the death toll rose to nearly 10 000. State media reports indicated that the number of dead was likely to soar, with Xinhua saying 10 000 people remained buried in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan province.