BEIJING, May 17 (Reuters) - Forty-six seriously injured people needed to be evacuated immediately in Beichuan, at the epicentre of the Sichuan quake, where the water level of a lake is rising rapidly and may burst at any time, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting warnings from soldiers at the site.

China has put the known death toll from Monday's quake at over 22,000 but has said it expects it to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes and the days are numbered in which survivors can be found.

(Reporting by Nick Macfie; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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