BEICHUAN, China - Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims fled areas near the epicentre Saturday, fearful of floods from rivers blocked by landslides.

Soldiers carried older people out of Beichuan town, one of the areas hit hardest by the magnitude 7.9 quake, whose confirmed death toll jumped to nearly 29,000, while survivors cradled babies on a road jammed with vehicles and people.

A policeman told The Associated Press that rescue officials were worried water from a choked river would inundate the town.

"The river was jammed up by a landslide; now that may burst. That is what we are worried about," the policeman said as he hurried by, not giving his name.

"I'm very scared. I heard that the water will be crashing down here," said Liang Xiao, one of the people fleeing. "If that happens, there will be over 10 metres of water over our heads."

The official Xinhua news agency said earlier that a lake in Beichuan county "may burst its bank at any time." Residents left for higher ground, but 46 seriously injured were still at risk, the agency said.

Further north, a mountain sheared off by the quake cut the Qingzhu river and covered three villages in a valley near Qingchuan. No traces remained of the villages, swallowed up by a huge mound of earth, behind which water from the river was backing up.

Xinhua said more than 2,000 people were evacuated from near that area.

The confirmed death toll rose Saturday to 28,881, cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin said. The government has previously said at least 50,000 people were believed killed in the disaster.

More than 10,600 people remained buried since Monday in Sichuan province, the regional government said, according to Xinhua.

Survivors were still being found under destroyed buildings five days after the quake, as the rescue operation grew to 148,000 soldiers and police.

Rescuers worked through the day - using saws, drills and their hands - to free a woman pinned under a crumpled six-storey apartment building in Longhua town after 124 hours in the rubble, a day after another person was pulled alive from the same place. Covered in mud and dust, 31-year-old Bian Gengfeng was taken away by medics, who covered her eyes with a towel to block the light.

The man rescued the day before had told rescuers he was talking with a woman still trapped under the building that had housed chemical factory workers, setting off Saturday's effort.

"Uncle called me yesterday and said mom was alive and I should come and wait here," said 10-year-old Luo Ting, Bian's daughter, who watched the rescue.

The vast majority of survivors are normally rescued in the first 24 hours after a disaster, with the chances of survival dropping each day, said Dr. Irving Jacoby of the University of California, San Diego, who heads a medical assistance team that responded to a 1989 earthquake in California, hurricane Katrina in 2005 and other disasters.

A person trapped but uninjured could survive a week or even 10 days, and in extreme circumstances two weeks or more, he said.

Rescue teams from South Korea, Singapore and Russia began work Saturday, joining Japanese specialists.

A U.S. air force cargo plane loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals left Hawaii on Saturday, the first aid flight from the United States to help in Sichuan province. Another air force delivery was to fly in from Alaska.

The United Nations announced a grant of up to $7 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund, to be used by UN agencies and programs.

Aftershocks continued, also shaking President Hu Jintao as he praised rescue workers during a tour of the destruction.

"You carried out the order of the party, government and the central military committee determinedly. You contributed to the relief efforts," Hu told troops in Wenchuan County before the shaking prompted him to pause and glance over a hill before he went on, "despite difficulty, weariness and harshness."

Caring for the untold tens of thousands or more survivors across the earthquake zone was stretching government resources.

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