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Shifang: Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims fled areas near the epicentre on Saturday, fearful of potential flooding from a lake where water levels were reported to be rising dangerously.
The lake in Beichuan county "may burst its bank at any time," the official Xinhua News Agency reported, without giving details as to what was causing the rise in water level, with no recent rain in the disaster area. Residents left their homes for higher ground, but 46 seriously injured were still at risk, the agency said.
Thousands of people were seen fleeing the area, near the epicentre of Monday's magnitude 7.9 earthquake. Witnesses said there were conflicting reports on whether a dam had burst near Beichuan in the north of Sichuan province or whether a lake had overflowed.
A local disaster relief official said the water in Haizi lake, nestled between two mountains, was not rising very quickly. Experts were studying how to release the excess from the lake, said the relief official in Mianyang.
Survivors were still being found under destroyed buildings five days after the quake, which the government said killed at least 50,000 people.
A 52-year-old man buried in the ruins for 117 hours was pulled to safety in Beichuan, just after a German tourist was found in Wenchuan county, Xinhua reported.
The confirmed death toll stood at 22,069, but another 14,000 were said to be buried in Sichuan.
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