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China quake cracks reservoirs, 47,000 people in danger

BEIJING, Aug 12 (Reuters) - More than 125,000 people were left homeless after an earthquake in southwest China killed four, injured nearly 600 and cracked walls in reservoirs posing a threat to villages downstream, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

The quake, measuring 5.6 on the open-ended Richter scale, rocked the county of Ludian in Yunnan province on Tuesday, collapsing more than 18,000 houses and damaging 45,000 others. Relief workers were rushing tents, medicine and food to the disaster area, Xinhua said.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters issued a notice "requiring comprehensive check-ups to all reservoirs within the earthquake-affected areas, around-the-clock safety patrols and timely resident relocation", it said.

"About 47,000 residents living downstream of the reservoirs are endangered," the news agency said, without giving details.

Xinhua quoted Deng Xianpei, mayor of the municipality at the quake's epicentre, as saying the number of injured continues to rise because antibiotics and disinfecting medicines were scarce.

Xinhua said 594 people were injured, 167 of them seriously, and that about 130,000 people would have to rely on relief food over the next eight months.

By Thursday, at least 6,000 tents had arrived at the disaster area, Xinhua said.

The quake almost entirely wiped out the flue-cured tobacco industry, the backbone in the region, the news agency said.

The tremor was the third earthquake to hit Ludian in a year, Xinhua said. Two earthquakes measuring 5.1 and 5.0 on the Richter scale hit the county on Nov. 15 and 26, 2003. Four people were killed and 120 injured in two previous quakes.