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ASIA-PACIFIC 
China orders 1.3 million to evacuate: Xinhua
Friday, 30 May, 2008
The death toll from China's earthquake has reached 68,858, with another 18,618 missing, a government spokesman said. (Getty Images)
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Authorities have ordered 1.3 million people near a "quake lake" in southwest China to evacuate amid fears it could burst and send massive torrents of water downstream, official media say.
"Tan Li... issued an order that 1.3 million people living downstream (of) Tangjiashan, a swelling quake-induced lake, must evacuate to higher grounds," Xinhua news agency reported.
Tan Li is the Communist Party secretary of Mianyang city, which is in the danger zone.
However a spokesman at the Mianyang city's information office said the report was not true.
"We have never issued an order to evacuate all the people in the city," said the spokesman, who declined to give his name.
Asked whether there had been an order to evacuate 1.3 million people, he replied: "No."
Source: AFP
