The flood peak discharged from a landslide-formed barrier lake has reached Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest Yunnan Province, said local water authority. As of the small hours today, 6,617 river-side residents have been relocated.

A landslide struck at about 7:10 a.m. Thursday in Bolo Township, Jomda County of Tibet's Qamdo City, forming a barrier lake on the section of the Jinsha River in the border area of Sichuan and Tibet. Water in the barrier lake reached about 200 million cubic meters on Friday afternoon, and the water in the lake began to overflow at 5:30 p.m.

Preliminary statistics show a total of 8,455 persons in the prefecture need to be relocated, said Yu Yonghong, director of Diqing Water Affairs Bureau, adding the evacuation is still underway.

"Compared with that in the morning, the water-level of the Jinsha River section here has risen by nearly 5 meters." Liqing Nongbu, Party head of the Yangla township in Deqin County, said Saturday night. Li added more than 700 villagers in the township have been evacuated since Thursday.

On Saturday afternoon, the Diqing Prefecture government held an emergency meeting to discuss measures to prevent and control the flood, demanding that all county-level authorities relocate near-river residents to areas at least 15 meter above the normal water-level.

Source: Xinhua; trans-editing by Wang Shixue