More than 86,000 people are dead or missing following the massive quake on May 12 that destroyed entire towns and villages across an area of mountainous Sichuan province the size of South Korea.

China has had to cope with thousands of aftershocks and a myriad of other potential disasters while trying to provide food, shelter and medical help for the millions of people left homeless.

Underlining those dangers, an aftershock measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale shook Sichuan province on Sunday -- the strongest since the original 8.0-magnitude tremor -- killing at least six people and injuring hundreds.

The aftershock also led to the collapse of a further 70,000 homes on top of the nearly six million destroyed two weeks ago.

The US Geological Survey, using a different scale, put the quake magnitude at 5.8.

Meanwhile, a lake on the Jian river in devastated Beichuan county that was created by landslides continued to build, raising fears of major flooding downstream if it burst.

State television showed a team of 1,800 Chinese soldiers and police arriving early Monday at the river after a long hike through remote, mountainous terrain.

A helicopter was also seen lifting a bulldozer into the area.

The soldiers carried dynamite and had orders to blast away the landslide rubble. Areas immediately downstream had already been evacuated.

With heavy rain forecast for the next three days, the swelling body of water is one of about 35 so-called "quake lakes" that have formed and could cause huge problems if they burst.

Vice Minister of Water Resources E Jingping said Sunday that no imminent danger was seen at the "quake lakes" but warned that expected heavy rains could heighten flood risks.

E also said the quake had left 69 dams in danger of bursting and had created "dangerous situations" at hundreds of others.

But he said steps had been taken to alleviate the danger, including draining or lowering the water levels at hundreds of reservoirs.

While specialists focused on the flood dangers, hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers, relief workers and ordinary volunteers pressed on with the enormous task of helping the traumatised survivors.

Many are now living in tents or hastily erected pre-fabricated houses in temporary camps scattered across the quake zone.

But an untold number are still living without shelter, with the government warning last week it was in desperate need of millions of tents and that the reconstruction work would take at least three years.

China has appealed to the outside world for help and more foreign aid arrived on Sunday as the first of an expected 12 Russian military flights bearing tents, blankets and other relief supplies landed in Chengdu, Sichuan's capital.

Aid has poured in from across the globe, including the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.

Premier Wen Jiabao thanked the international community for its help during a visit on Saturday to the devastated town of Yingxiu, the epicentre of the quake, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Highlighting the continued tensions across Sichuan, Sunday's aftershock sent people in the provincial capital of Chengdu fleeing from buildings.

"Houses started to shake and everybody went out into the street," Chengdu resident Lou Taiyi told AFP.

"We were thinking (May 12) was behind us but it is continuing," he said.

And grief turned to anger for about two dozen parents of children killed in the May 12 quake.

The parents staged a rare protest Sunday in Mianzhu town, demanding a probe into whether shoddy school construction was to blame for the deaths of their children.

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