(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-31 22:08

MIANYANG - More than 340 soldiers and engineers have left the Tangjiashan quake-formed lake in China's Sichuan Province after successfully digging a canal to drain the lake, officials said.

Landslides triggered off by the May 12 earthquake had blocked a river, forming a lake containing nearly 200 million cubic meters of water

More than 600 armed police have been working around the clock over the last 10 days on the canal cut out on the blockage.

The first group of 15 workers, mainly soldiers of the hydropower corps of the People's Armed Police Force, left in a helicopter at 8:35 a.m. Saturday, a Xinhua reporter at the site said.

They were taken to the Nanjiao Military Airport in Mianyang City for rest, he said.

On Saturday night, about 26 excavators and bulldozers were still working on top of the blockage and the work was to be completed around midnight, said Zhou Xiangjun, an armed police officer.

The remaining 300 people will stay through Saturday night, and most of them would leave by Sunday noon. More than 10 tons of dynamite, fuel and garbage were taken away to avoid environmental pollution, Zhou said.

Three teams of soldiers would stay at Tangjiashan to monitor the situation, he said.

The water level of the lake, which had been rising about 1.6 meters daily, was seven or eight meters from the lowest point of the blockage, he said.

It is expected that the blocked water will eventually run over the blockage and continue its trip through the man-made canal.

According to Yue Xi, deputy chief of hydropower corps, this may happen between June 1-3.

On Saturday, the soldiers left in helicopters and some left on foot.

"We prefer the airlift if weather permits. If the weather turns bad, we will walk out tomorrow morning." Yue said.

It takes 40 minutes to reach the airport in Mianyang and six to seven hours by foot. Evacuees have to cross two mountains if they choose to walk out, he said.

A total of 197,477 people were evacuated to safe ground as of 8 a.m. Saturday in line with an emergency plan, an official with the quake relief headquarters of Mianyang City said.

Tan Li, Communist Party chief of Mianyang and head of Mianyang City Quake Control and Relief Headquarters, on Friday renewed an order that 1.3 million people living downstream from Tangjiashan must be evacuated to higher grounds demarcated by the government.

At 4 p.m. Thursday, Tan issued a No. 1 order demanding that about 200,000 people living downstream from Tangjiashan in the main urban districts of Mianyang should start evacuation by 8 a.m. Saturday. The evacuation must be completed by 8 a.m. Sunday.

Two other plans require the relocation of 1.2 million people if the half of the lake volume was released, or 1.3 million if the whole landslide blockage is washed away.