Flood Fears Spark Evacuation From Quake-hit City

The official death toll from China's deadliest earthquake in three decades rose to almost 29,000 today as thousands of people were evacuated from areas near the epicentre amid fears of flooding.

Residents and relief workers left Beichuan city for higher ground after it was reported that a river may burst its banks and flood the area.

The Associated Press said thousands of people were moved from the area, which was hardest hit by the 7.9-magnitude quake earlier this week.

A policeman told AP that rescue officials were worried that water from the choked river would inundate the town.

"The river was jammed up by a landslide; now that may burst. That is what we are worried about," the policeman said.

"I'm very scared. I heard that the water will be crashing down here," said Liang Xiao, one of the people fleeing. "If that happens, there will be over 10 metres of water over our heads."

The state-run Xinhua news agency said earlier that a lake in Beichuan county, in the south-west province of Sichuan, "may burst its bank at any time", without saying why the water was rising. Residents left for higher ground, but 46 seriously injured were still at risk, the agency said.

In other developments, 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.

As officials sought to calm residents in Beichuan, a Chinese government spokesman said the confirmed death toll had risen to almost 29,000. Guo Weimin, a cabinet spokesman, gave the figure at a news conference. The government has already said it expects the death toll to exceed 50,000.

The higher death toll came as rescue teams from South Korea, Singapore and Russia began work in the quake zone, joining Japanese specialists.

A US air force cargo plane with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals left Hawaii, the first aid flight from the US. Another air force delivery was to fly in from Alaska.

The UN has announced a grant of up to $7m (£3.5m) from its central emergency response fund, to be used by UN agencies and programs.

The government has not given a figure for the number of people left homeless, but the housing minister, Jiang Weixin, said more than 4 million apartments and homes had been damaged or destroyed in Sichuan province. He said the water supply situation was "extremely serious" in Sichuan, and not flowing at all in 20 cities and counties.

Caring for tens of thousands or more survivors across the earthquake zone was stretching government resources.

Just north of the provincial capital of Chengdu, the town square in Shifang had become a tent camp for 2,000 people, with many people walking in from surrounding towns with few belongings.

"We brought almost nothing, only the clothes we are wearing," Zhang Xinyong, a school pupil who walked several hours to the camp, told AP.

The ministry of health said there had been no major outbreaks of epidemics or other public health hazards in the earthquake area, according to Xinhua. By late Friday, hospitals in Sichuan had received 116,460 patients, including nearly 16,000 severely injured.