DUJIANGYAN, China (AFP) — A massive quake-induced lake was approaching hazardous levels in China Wednesday, as a ranking official said the situation there was "extremely dangerous," state media reported.
Multiple threats loomed at the Tangjiashan "quake lake," state media said, even though soldiers had been working for days to control the lake, now with a volume of more than 80,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Liu Ning, chief engineer at the Ministry of Water Resources, warned at a briefing late Tuesday that one of the risks was aftershocks, which could breach the lake any time, inundating lower-lying areas.
"The area still receives constant aftershocks, and especially aftershocks of a strength over six on the Richter scale could have an impact," said Liu, according to the China News Service.
"After several measures undertaken at the lake, the situation remains extremely dangerous," the news service said, citing Liu.
The lake was created when the May 12 magnitude-8.0 earthquake rattled southwest China's Sichuan province, triggering a massive landslide that blocked a river cutting through the mountainous area.
Since then, officials have been watching anxiously as the lake has built up, warning it could endanger more than a million people if it were to break through the barrier.
Last week hundreds of soldiers dug a channel, hoping it would help drain the lake or at least contain its growth once it reached a certain level.
As of late Wednesday, the surface of the lake was edging closer to the top of the dam, reaching just 2.03 metres (6.6 feet) below the lowest point of the blockage, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Rain was also forecast for the area on Thursday, threatening to raise the lake further, Xinhua said.
It remained to be seen whether the water could be directed successfully into the newly dug channel, according to the China Daily.
"We must prepare for dealing with the worst situation but strive for the best results," said Water Resources Minister Chen Le said at a meeting on dealing with the lake.
The death toll from China's earthquake rose on Wednesday to 69,122, with another 17,991 missing, a government spokesman said. The new toll marked an increase of 15 from the day before.
In a part of Mianzhu city in the quake zone, officials were preparing to move 14,000 people amid fears of rock and mudslides, Xinhua said, compounding the misery for quake survivors.
About 3,000 people were being evacuated during the night Wednesday, an official said, with the rest moving on Thursday to safer, temporary shelters.
As of Wednesday evening there was still no news on a missing rescue helicopter that crashed in mountainous terrain Saturday with 19 on board.
Reporters, both foreign and domestic, had been allowed rare freedom to report in the immediate aftermath of the quake, but security measures have been noticeably more stringent in recent days.
Two Chinese news reporters told AFP they had been ordered to tone down coverage of the protests over shoddy school construction.
"They said we must be more careful about what we report on," a journalist said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Chinese police and soldiers blocked access to schools in the quake region Wednesday after residents reported angry disturbances by parents of dead children.
The restricted access appeared to reflect growing official anxiety over increasingly public displays of anger by parents of the thousands of children killed by the quake.
"This is a bad thing and they don't want it publicised. They want to keep it a secret. They are getting worried," a parent, who gave only his surname Zhou due to the sensitivity of the subject, told AFP.
He said his daughter was one of hundreds buried in the Juyuan Middle School near the city of Dujiangyan.
Parents across the quake-hit region have blamed shoddy construction linked to official corruption for the collapse of schools and have staged rare open protests demanding justice.
In perhaps the most volatile incident yet, a group of about 100 people including grieving parents were forcibly dispersed on Tuesday after staging a demonstration in Dujiangyan, Zhou and other residents told AFP.
Some parents, demanding that someone be held responsible for the school collapses, were physically dragged away by riot police, they said.
"Our children died because of corruption. Everybody knows," Zhou said. "We want those responsible to be found and punished."
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