Asia-Pacific News
Thousands flee as flood threatens quake-hit town (3rd Lead)
By DPA
May 17, 2008, 7:40 GMT

Beijing - Residents of an earthquake-devastated town in south-western China fled on Saturday as a nearby lake was reportedly in imminent danger of flooding the town.

The residents of Beichuan in Sichuan province began rushing onto hillsides and some clambered onto motorcycles to leave the town as quickly as possible, Ariane Reimers, a correspondent from German broadcaster ARD, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone.

The river through the town had almost dried up, Reimers said, apparently because earthquake damage had caused a blockage upstream.

The government's official Xinhua news agency earlier said the military had ordered the evacuation of injured people from the town.

'Forty-six seriously injured people need to be evacuated immediately in Beichuan county at the epicentre of the Sichuan quake, where the water level of a lake is rising rapidly, and the lake may burst at any time,' the agency said.

Meanwhile, an estimated 5 million people left homeless by the earthquake in awoke Saturday from a fifth night in difficult conditions, with tons of relief supplies flooding into the disaster zone.

Amid wrecked infrastructure, the lack of sanitation for the surviving population and the inability to bury the more than 50,000 estimated dead as fast as bodies were being pulled from the rubble was raising the spectre of disease.

Shortages of medical staff, medicines and blood supplies were being reported for the 169,000 people injured in Monday's massive earthquake.

The Chinese military was planning to erect two additional field hospitals in the region, though equipment still needs to be transported to the scene.

China's Air Force was set to fly 10 more medical teams and 1,100 tons of relief supplies into Sichuan, drawing on military stockpiles, including 5,000 tents, 200 electrical generators, food, clothing and blankets, Xinhua reported.

Military transport aircraft are expected to fly up to 50 sorties over the weekend, airlifting supplies from across China to the Sichuan provincial capital, Chengdu.

In other news, the German Foreign Ministry reported Saturday that the German embassy in Beijing and the consulate in Chengdu were trying to ascertain whether a foreign man pulled from the rubble was indeed a German citizen as Xinhua had reported.

A spokeswoman said the embassy and consulate would look into reports of a few Germans reported missing in the quake-hit region.