China has evacuated more than 150,000 people living below a swollen lake formed by this month's devastating earthquake amid fears it could burst and trigger massive flooding, state media said on Wednesday.
And Tokyo's Jiji news agency said China had called on Japan to send its military to help with relief operations.
The Tangjiashan lake was created when landslides caused by the May 12 earthquake blocked the Jianjiang river above the town and county of Beichuan in mountainous Sichuan province, near the epicentre of China's most destructive earthquake in decades.
The official death toll from the 7.9 magnitude quake is already more than 67,000 and is certain to rise further, with nearly 21,000 listed as missing. The quake injured nearly 362,000 people and new aftershocks toppled 420,000 houses, many already uninhabitable, on Tuesday.
Downstream from the lake, residents were evacuated overnight as engineers dug a diversion channel to prevent flooding.
Up to 1.3 million people could be relocated if the lake barrier collapses entirely, the China Daily said in its online edition.
Residents of Taihong looked on as the landslide demolished their village. Han Haiyun, 60, was lucky to be away from her house at the time.
"I would never have thought something like this could happen in my life," she said. "...It's impossible to put into words."
The water level in the lake, one of 35 "quake lakes" formed by the tremor and holding the volume of about 50,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, has kept rising and the giant sluice would not be ready for another week, the China Daily quoted experts as saying.
Immediately below the lake, the river runs in a loop between flattened high- and low-rise buildings, but threatens communities downstream which held evacuation drills on Tuesday.
Beijing on Wednesday allocated 200 million yuan (15 million pounds) to Sichuan especially for defusing the threat of the quake lakes, 28 of which were still rated as dangerous, Xinhua news agency said.
JAPANESE MILITARY
