BEICHUAN (China), May 17: Thousands of Chinese fled homes on Saturday amid fears a lake could burst its banks, hampering rescue efforts after the deadliest earthquake in more than three decades hit the nation.

The exodus came after the government warned that the lake damaged by the quake in Sichuan province may be about to burst its banks as President Hu Jintao urged rescuers to race to save lives.

Forty-six seriously injured people needed to be evacuated immediately in Beichuan, at the epicentre of Monday’s 7.9 magnitude quake, where the water level of the lake was rising rapidly and may burst, Xinhua news agency said.

It did not give details but Hong Kong cable television said some 1.2 million people were being evacuated in Qingchuan, about 90km northeast of Beichuan, as rising waters threatened to burst a lake’s banks there.

Anger has been mounting at the large number of schools which collapsed and there is growing concern about the safety of a number of dams and reservoirs which have been weakened in Sichuan, an area about the size of Spain.

China has put the known death toll at over 22,000 but has said it expects it to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes and the days are numbered in which survivors can be found.

“Although the time for the best chance of rescue, the first 72 hours after an earthquake, has passed, saving lives remains the top priority of our work,” Hu told distraught survivors just over a week after a jubilant China celebrated the Olympic torch reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

And as the weather gets warmer, survivors were increasingly worried about hygiene and asking questions about their longer-term future.

“What we don’t need now is more instant noodles,” said truck driver Wang Jianhong in the city of Dujiangyan. “We want to know now what will happen with our lives.”

In Sichuan and neighbouring Chongqing, at least 17 reservoirs have been damaged, with some dams cracked or leaking water. Several are on the Min River, which tumbles through the worst-hit areas between the Tibetan plateau and the Sichuan plain.

The Lianhehua dam, built in the late 1950s northwest of Dujiangyan, showed cracks big enough to put a fist in.

“When the dam is in this shape, we cannot feel relaxed,” said farmer Feng Binggui who has moved from his village below the dam into the hills.

China is also on precautionary alert against possible radiation leaks, according to a government website.

China’s chief nuclear weapons research lab is in Mianyang, along with several secret atomic sites, but there are no nuclear power stations.

China has sent 130,000 troops to the disaster area, but roads buckled by the quake and blocked by landslides have made it hard for supplies and rescuers to reach the worst-hit areas.

Offers of help have flooded in and foreign rescue teams from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore have arrived.—Reuters