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China earthquake toll climbs
13/05/2008 14:03 - (SA)
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| A rescuer tries to help a student out of the debris at Wudu Primary School at Hanwang town in Mianzhu city. (Chen Jianli, AP) |
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Dujiangyan, China - Bodies covered with sheets lined streets as rescue workers dug through schools and homes turned into rubble by China's worst earthquake in three decades in a desperate attempt to rescue victims trapped under concrete slabs.
The official death toll rose on Tuesday to nearly 12 000, and thousands remained missing.
But hope that many survivors would be found was fleeting. Only 58 people were extricated from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesperson Zhang Hongwei told the official Xinhua News Agency. In one county, 80% of the buildings had been destroyed.
"Survivors can hold on for some time. Now is not the time to give up," Wang Zhenyao, disaster relief division director at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, told reporters in Beijing.
A day after the powerful 7.9 magnitude quake struck on Monday afternoon, state media said rescue workers had reached the epicentre in Wenchuan county - where the number of casualties was still unknown. The quake was centred just north of the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu in central China, tearing into urban areas and mountain villages.
Rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a rescue mission to the epicentre due to heavy storms, Xinhua reported.
The death toll rose to 11 921, said Wang. At least 4 800 people also remained buried in Mianzhu, 100km from the epicentre, Xinhua said, citing local authorities.
The casualty figures were expected to rise and remained uncertain due to the remote areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.
'My wife died in the quake. My house was destroyed'
Earthquake rescue experts in orange jumpsuits extricated bloody survivors on stretchers from demolished buildings, and some 34 000 troops swarmed into the region to help.
Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in Chengdu. The US Geological Survey measured the shocks between magnitude four and six, some of the strongest since Monday's quake.
Zhou Chun, a 70-year-old retired mechanic, was leaving Dujiangyan with a soiled light blue blanket draped over his shoulders.
"My wife died in the quake. My house was destroyed," he said. "I am going to Chengdu, but I don't know where I'll live."
Zhou and other survivors were pulling luggage and clutching plastic bags of food amid a steady drizzle and the constant wall of ambulances.
Just east of the epicentre, 1 000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county - a six-storey building reduced to a pile of rubble, according to Xinhua. Xinhua said up to 5 000 people were killed and 80% of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan.
The deaths were separate from another levelled school in Dujiangyan where 900 students were feared dead. As bodies of teenagers were carried out on doors used as makeshift stretchers, relatives lit incense and candles and also set off fireworks to ward away evil spirits.
Rescue teams were also trying to get to a woman who was eight months pregnant and trapped in a seven-storey apartment building that collapsed.
Elsewhere in Gansu province, a 40-car freight train derailed in the quake that included 13 gasoline tankers was still burning on Tuesday, Xinhua said.
'We can't accommodate personnel at this point'
Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed to the area to oversee rescue efforts, said a push was on to clear roads and restore electricity as soon as possible. His visit to the disaster scene was prominently featured on state TV, a gesture meant to reassure people that the ruling party was doing all it could.
The Ministry of Health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the quake victims.
Fifteen missing British tourists were believed to have been in that area at the time of the quake and were "out of reach", Xinhua reported.
They were likely visiting the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 100 giant pandas, whose fate also was not known, Xinhua said, adding that 60 pandas at another breeding centre in Chengdu were safe.
Two Chinese-Americans and a Thai tourist also were missing in Sichuan province, the agency said, citing tourism officials.
The disaster comes less than three months before the start of the Beijing Olympics. The tragedy is just the latest event to tarnish the run-up to the event meant to showcase China's rise that has been marked by internal strife and anti-China sentiment abroad.
Still, Beijing Olympics organisers said the torch relay will continue as planned through the quake-affected area next month.
Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from the United States, Japan and the European Union, among others.
The Dalai Lama, who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims. The epicentre is just south of some Tibetan mountain areas that saw anti-government protests earlier this year.
The Chinese government said it would welcome outside aid, and Russia was sending a plane with rescuers and supplies, the country's Interfax news agency reported.
But Wang, the disaster relief official, said international aid workers would not be allowed to travel to the affected area.
"We welcome funds and supplies; we can't accommodate personnel at this point," he said.
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