Up to 70,000 people living in the epicentre of last month's China earthquake began emergency evacuations due to the risk of landslides from heavy rain, state press said Monday.
  
The quake victims began evacuating from the township of Wenchuan on Sunday due to fears of rock and mud slides in the mountainous region brought on by torrential rains, the Beijing News reported.
  
"Wenchuan has already entered the rainy season and the rain will weaken even more the already brittle mountainsides, making the situation even worse," the paper said.