Swollen lake leads to mass evacuation

CHINESE authorities have evacuated 600,000 people from around the dangerously swollen Dongting Lake as it threatens to engulf millions more, state media said yesterday.

Floods in the southern province of Hunan, where local officials say hundreds of thousands of people are trying to prevent Dongting spilling over, had already killed at least 16 people, the China Daily reported.

The newspaper gave no details of where or how the people died, but said 8.4 million were affected by floods.