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Chengdu: China has declared victory in its fight to drain a lake that threatened more than a million people living downstream after it was formed by last month's massive earthquake.
Water poured through a man-made sluice on Tuesday and engulfed low-lying, empty towns where more than 250,000 people had been evacuated to higher ground.
Sichuan province's top leader, local Communist Party chief Liu Qibao, called it a "decisive victory" as waters gushed from Tangjiashan lake, the official Xinhua
News Agency said.
Tangjiashan is the largest of 30 lakes created by the May 12 quake that killed nearly 70,000 people.
Xinhua said more than half of the 8.8 billion cubic feet of water in the lake had been drained off by early evening, easing pressure on the natural dam formed when the quake triggered a landslide of mud, rocks and debris.
More than 250,000 people living downstream had already moved to high ground due to concerns that the barrier holding back the lake could break. A total of about 1.3 million people live in the downstream area.
Fearful that the possible deluge would endanger refugees and residents, China ordered soldiers and police to work nonstop for four days to dig a diversion channel and blast away boulders and large debris with dynamite, bazookas and recoilless guns to speed up the drainage.
The swirl of muddy water roaring past towns and villages swept along trees, barrels, television sets, refrigerators "and the occasional dead bodies of quake victims," Xinhua reported.
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