Quake toll expected to soar
2008-05-13 07:27
Dujiangyan - Nearly 10 000 people were killed in the earthquake that hammered southwest China, officials said on Tuesday, as rescuers struggled to reach the worst-hit areas where many more may have died.
State media reports indicated the toll from China's worst
earthquake in three decades was likely to soar, with Xinhua
saying 10 000 people remained buried in the Mianzhu area of
Sichuan province.
The Xinhua report did not make clear if some of those
buried were included in the overall death toll.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed to Sichuan, ordered
roads to Wenchuan, a hilly area about 100km from
the provincial capital Chengdu that was completely cut off by
Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake, to be opened by midday, Xinhua
news agency said.
Bad weather
But rain and thick clouds meant that military helicopters
dispatched to the area could not yet land, and if the weather
remained overcast soldiers mobilised to help with rescue work
would try to parachute in.
In the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan - about midway between
Chengdu and the epicentre - there were scenes of devastation,
with buildings reduced to rubble and bodies in the streets,
some only partially covered.
Troops and ambulances thronged the streets, and military
trucks able to do heavy lifting had arrived. But many residents
simply stood beside their wrecked homes, cradling possessions
in their arms, and many huddled in relief tents under heavy
rain.
"At least 60 or 70 old people lived there, as well as
children," said a hospital worker surnamed Huo, gesturing to a
building in ruins. Mattresses and household objects could be
seen poking through the rubble.
"How could they survive that?" she asked.
Frantic searches
Rescuers had worked frantically through the night, pulling
bodies from homes, schools, factories and hospitals demolished
by the quake, which rolled from Sichuan across much of China.
In the same city, about 900 teenagers were buried under a
collapsed three-storey school building. Premier Wen bowed three
times in grief before some of the first 50 bodies pulled out,
Xinhua reported.
"Not one minute can be wasted," said Wen, a trained
geologist. "One minute, one second could mean a child's life."
The initial tremor, which the US Geological Survey
upgraded to magnitude 7.9 from 7.8, was followed by a series of
aftershocks, which shook the area through the night.