Evacuees began returning from temporary camps today after Chinese authorities declared the flood threat over from an earthquake-formed lake drained successfully the day before.

A MILITARY helicopter carrying 19 people, many of them injured in China’s devastating earthquake, crashed in fog and turbulence, and authorities were searching for survivors yesterday.

Chinese authorities prepared to begin draining a swelling earthquake-formed lake today after evacuating nearly 200,000 people and warning more than a million others to be ready to leave quickly.

Chinese authorities began evacuating earthquake relief workers from a flood-risk zone today, in a drill that put 1.3 million people on alert to quickly leave if an earthquake-spawned lake breached a dam.

More than one million people may have to evacuate dozens of villages in a Sichuan province valley if an earthquake-spawned lake threatens to burst and flood the region, an emergency official warned yesterday.

More than a million people may have to urgently evacuate a Chinese valley threatened with flooding from a lake created by the earthquake.

More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate a valley in central China threatened with flooding from a growing lake formed by the earthquake.

A stockpile of chemicals being used to disinfect an earthquake-shattered Chinese town caught fire injuring scores of soldiers today.

China struggled to keep roads open to provide a lifeline for quake survivors today while the government warned that rebuilding after the disaster would be “arduous”.

About 80,000 people have been evacuated downstream of an unstable earthquake-created dam threatening to collapse, while Chinese troops rushed to carve a trench to drain the water before it flooded the valley.

Another 80,000 people were being hurried to safety today from the path of floods building up behind earthquake debris in China.

Chinese soldiers using massive earth-moving equipment prepared to blast away part of a landslide today to ease the flooding threat from a river blocked up by the huge earthquake.

Chinese quake rescuers struggled with flooded rivers and dams in danger of collapse threatening to add to the devastation today.

China said today the toll of dead and missing from last week’s powerful earthquake had jumped to more than 80,000, while the government appealed for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

China said the death toll from last week’s powerful earthquake has jumped to more than 51,000, while the government appealed today for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

Construction workers put down their tools, drivers stopped suddenly in the street, and rescuers briefly paused in their increasingly vain search for survivors amid the rubble of China’s earthquake devastation.

More than 200 relief workers have been buried by a mudslide in earthquake-hit Sichuan province, a Chinese state news agency said today.

The search for survivors in the rubble of China's powerful earthquake grew bleak today, with rescuers in some areas no longer listening for trapped victims.

Rescuers in earthquake-hit China continued to pull bodies from collapsed buildings today as a specialist British team was refused permission to join the operation.

Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims fled areas near the epicentre today, fearful of potential flooding from a lake where water levels were reported to be rising dangerously.

ANGRY Chinese yesterday demanded to know why so many schools collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake.

Rescuers have pulled a pupil to safety after being trapped for 80 hours in the debris of a school following China’s massive earthquake, it was reported today.

China today admitted the death toll from this week’s earthquake could be higher than 50,000.

China issued a rare public appeal for rescue equipment today as it struggled to cope with the aftermath of this week’s earthquake.

China ordered 101 more helicopters into the air today and planned aid drops into remote areas of Sichuan province as it struggled to cope with the powerful earthquake that has directly affected 10 million people.

Thousands of troops are tonight fighting to plug dangerous cracks in a dam above an earthquake-hit Chinese town.

More than 50,000 people may have died in China’s earthquake, the government admitted today.

An eight-months pregnant woman was pulled to safety today after two days trapped in the rubble of the Chinese earthquake.

Soldiers who hiked over landslide-blocked roads to reach the epicentre of China’s devastating earthquake searched through collapsed buildings today for survivors, with the death toll certain to rise to near 20,000 as the buried are found.

China began airlifting aid today to the areas worst hit by a massive earthquake, as new reports of casualties were poised to push the death toll close to 20,000.

Rescue workers sifted through tangled debris of toppled schools and homes today for thousands of victims buried or missing after China’s worst earthquake in three decades, as the death toll soared to more than 12,000 people in the hardest-hit province alone.

The official death toll in the Chinese earthquake rose to 12,000 today with thousands more still missing amid reports of strong aftershocks in the region.

Chinese state media have reported that 10,000 people “remain buried” in Mianzhu near the epicentre of the earthquake that has already killed about 10,000.

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in central China has climbed to nearly 10,000 in the worst-hit province, state news reports said today.