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 State broadcaster CCTV showed water flowing rapidly out of Tangjiashan lake and flooding low-lying areas of the devastated town of Beichuan just downstream. Residents in the area have long been evacuated and others along the river were preparing to leave if waters rose too high, the station reported.
It said 40 percent of homes in the town of Qingyi were at risk while the city of Mianyang, where residents have been practicing evacuation drills, was on alert.
The official Xinhua News Agency said its reporters in saw trees, barrels, television sets, refrigerators "and the occasional dead bodies of quake victims" in water pouring out of the mountains.
Flood water seeped into riverside houses in the largely evacuated town of Qinglian, a resident who remained in the area said.
"Everybody feels lucky that it didn't submerge the streets and the neighborhood," said Wu Zhenxing.
For days, troops had been using dynamite and anti-tank weapons to blast boulders and other obstacles in a diversion canal, trying to speed the flow of water and relieve pressure on the lake's unstable mud and rock dam.
It wasn't immediately clear, however, whether engineers could control the flow and prevent a breach that would cause severe flooding downstream.
More than 250,000 people downstream have already moved to high ground due to concerns the barrier holding back the lake could breach entirely. About 1.3 million people total live downstream.
David Petley, a geography professor at Britain's University of Durham who has been monitoring the lake through photos, said it appeared the flow of water was out of control.
"The government absolutely must evacuate everyone at risk downstream as there is a really high chance of a total collapse. I want to emphasize that it seems to me that this is a crisis situation," Petley wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Petley earlier said the top of the dam was holding, instead of eroding slowly as it should, while the channel farther down was eroding too quickly.
Also Tuesday, state media said searchers had discovered the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in deep mountains in southwestern China while ferrying people injured in last month's quake.
The remains of the air force helicopter's five-person crew and 14 quake victims were found at the crash site near the town of Yingxiu, Xinhua said. It said wreckage was spread over a wide area of deep vegetation.
The Russian-designed Mi-171 crashed May 31 near the epicenter of the quake in the Sichuan province town of Wenchuan, after flying into fog and turbulence.
The 7.9 magnitude quake on May 12 killed 69,146 people, and 17,516 are still missing, according to the government. About 5 million people were made homeless.
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 Also Tuesday, staff at the world's most famous panda reserve buried one of the animals that was killed in a landslide triggered by the quake.
Nine-year-old female Mao Mao was the only panda at the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve confirmed to have died in the quake, said Zhang Hemin, who heads the reserve. The panda's body was found Monday.
Staff placed Mao Mao in a crate, then buried it and placed a large stone on top.
Mao Mao's keeper, He Changgui, sobbed softly as he placed apples and a slice of bread on the stone as a funeral offering.
"I will go back to see her every day," He said.
One other panda, Xiao Xiao, has also been missing since the quake. Forty-seven others still live at Wolong.
The panda is revered in China and serves as an unofficial mascot. About 1,590 pandas live in the wild, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi. An additional 180 have been bred in captivity in hopes of increasing the species' chances of survival.
Earlier, China's security chief stressed the need to maintain order amid a struggle to shelter millions left homeless by the quake and scattered protests over alleged corruption and shoddy school construction.
Zhou Yongkang demanded police and legal staff "solve disputes and help maintain social stability," the Communist Party's official newspaper, The People's Daily, reported Tuesday. Zhou on Monday ended a five-day visit to Sichuan province, where the quake was centered, the paper said.
"A stable social environment is a prerequisite for successful quake relief work," the paper quoted Zhou as saying. The report made no mention of any specific problems.
While there have been no reports of major unrest, refugees have rioted on at least one occasion over misused aid. Parents of children killed in schools have protested to demand officials answer for alleged corruption in the construction process.
At least 15 Sichuan officials have been removed from their posts for mishandling relief work. Another 13 have been given other forms of administrative punishment.
[Associated
Press; By AUDRA ANG]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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