Up to 1.3 million people living downstream of a massive lake created by landslides in this month's earthquake in western China have been ordered to move to higher ground for fear it may burst its banks and cause flooding, state media reported Friday. The people under threat live downstream of Tangjiashan lake, created when landslides dammed a river in mountains near Beichuan, one of the town's worst hit by the May 12 quake.
Engineers and the army have been attempting to cut a channel to drain water from the lake safely, but rain in recent days has caused water levels to rise and forced the authorities to implement a full evacuation plan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, saying the order had come from the Communist Party chief in the nearby city of Mianyang.