A barrier lake, which was formed by the blocking of a river in quake-hit Sichuan Province breached but caused no casualties, rescue headquarters said on Saturday.

The lake formed in the upper reaches of the Jianjiang River in Pengzhou City with a volume of 1.6 million cubic meters. It burst at 2:30 p.m. Friday, according to the general headquarters for quake relief under the State Council.

Residents in the downstream were evacuated in time. The burst caused no casualties, the headquarters said.

A reservoir downstream also discharged water in advance so as to receive the water from the lake.

Many barrier lakes formed after Monday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake caused landslides, which blocked rivers.

Experts were also closely monitoring another barrier lake in Beihcuan County. The lake was threatening the county seat downstream.

There had been no burst of reservoirs in the quake-hit areas, the headquarters' team in charge of water facilities said.

Liu Ning, Ministry of Water Resources' engineer-in-chief, told Xinhua on Saturday some water facility projects, such as reservoirs and hydroelectric stations suffered damages after the quake.

To prevent new disasters, the ministry had dispatched 25 work teams to check affected reservoirs, Liu added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)