China to dynamite 'quake lake'

CHENGDU, China (CNN) -- Chinese military engineers are prepared to dynamite a potentially dangerous "quake lake" created when landslides dammed a river after this month's earthquake in which more than 65,000 people were killed, state-run media reported Monday.

Authorities are concerned the swelling lake will burst as water from the Jianhe river in Beichuan county in China's southwestern Sichuan province rises behind the earthquake-created dam, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"The lake ... may cause a devastating flooding if the barrier bursts," Xinhua said. Authorities want to control the flow of water -- rather than have the dam give way all at once -- by creating a spillway.

Helicopters transported military experts armed with dynamite and heavy equipment to the site Monday morning. About 1,800 Chinese soliders and police were already at the site.

More than 30 of the so-called quake lakes were created by the 7.9-magnitude quake that devastated the region on May 12.

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- China sent troops and police to try toprevent floods threatening more than 700,000 survivors of thecountry's deadliest earthquake in 32 years in Sichuan province,as weather forecasters said thunderstorms were on the way.

Military engineers carrying dynamite arrived early today atthe site of a lake created by landslides that lies 3.2 kilometers(2 miles) from Tangjiashan in Beichuan County, the officialXinhua News Agency reported. Helicopters also dropped men andequipment, it said.

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 5,914 people injured in the May 12 earthquake have been taken from southwest China's Sichuan Province for treatment elsewhere in the country by Sunday, says the Ministry of Health.

    The number of injured in the quake zone far exceeded local medical capacity, said Zheng Zhongwei, head of the medical evacuee work group in Sichuan. "It's safer for the patients to be transferred out of the quake zone. In other provinces they will receive better treatment."

    On Monday, 484 patients would be taken by air or rail to Shanghai, Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong. Fifteen provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities were required by the ministry to receive the injured.

    Zheng said that under ministry regulations, only seriously injured but stable patients could be transferred as they needed long-term medical care and were unlikely to require emergency treatment en route.

    A total of 8,000 quake victims will be sent to 18 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country for treatment by the end of May, according to the transfer plan mapped out by the ministry.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has recaptured a giant panda that made a bid for freedom after a massive earthquake devastated the research base where it lived, the official Xinhua agency said on Monday.

The panda, named Xi Xi, was spotted on Sunday by a river not far from the Wolong research centre, but had disappeared into the woods by the time staff had got across.