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.

The Tibetan government-in-exile has asked for a temporary stop to protests against China as the country grapples with the aftermath of an earthquake that has killed 40,000 and left millions more homeless.

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.

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.

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.

The bodies of the young teenagers were brought out of the wreckage on doors scavenged from what remained of their school.

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.

KENNETH EGAN and surprise packets Paddy Barnes and Eric Donovan provide an interesting blend of youth and experience in what will be all-out war for places in the top eight at the World Boxing Championships in Chicago.