The death toll from China's deadliest earthquake in decades has
climbed to nearly 15,000 as officials warned of calamities
downstream from broken rivers and dams strained to bursting
point.
Tens of thousands of troops, firefighters and civilians raced to
save more than 25,000 people buried across a wide swathe of
southwest Sichuan province under collapsed schools, factories and
hospitals after Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake.
Many schoolchildren were buried as they were taking an afternoon
nap. One body of a boy was found still clutching a pen.
The official death toll climbed to 14,866, as rescuers pulled at
tangled chunks of buildings for signs of life.
The government sent 50,000 troops to dig for victims. A
paramilitary officer who arrived at Wenchuan, at the epicentre,
told Sichuan TV a third of houses there had been destroyed and more
than 90 percent damaged.
Amid the overwhelming gloom, there were also moments of joy.
In Mianzhu, where thousands have already been confirmed dead, about
500 people were pulled out alive from crushed buildings.
Rescuers in Hanwang, a village in Mianzhu, sustained a girl with
food and water as they struggled to free her from the ruins of a
school.
A woman eight-months pregnant and her mother, trapped under an
apartment building in Dujiangyan, were freed by firefighters.
"We are very happy. We have been standing here shouting for two
days," said Pan Jianjun, a relative. "But there are still three
more people in there making sounds."
But television showed whole villages wiped out across the poor,
mountainous region suggesting searchers would find many more bodies
than survivors among the toppled buildings.
Blocked rivers, damaged dams
Officials have also warned of dangers from increased strain on
local dams as well as mudslides on brittle hillsides where rain has
been forecast over the next few days.
Two hydropower stations in Maoxian county, where 7,000 residents
and tourists remain stranded near the epicentre, were "seriously
damaged". Authorities warned that dams could burst.
Landslides had blocked the flow of two rivers in northern Qingchuan
county, forming a huge lake in a region where 1,000 have already
died and 700 are buried, Xinhua said.
"The rising water could cause the mountains to collapse. We
desperately need geological experts to carry out tests and fix a
rescue plan," Xinhua quoted Li Hao, the county's Communist Party
chief, as saying.
The quake had also stopped a river in the stricken Mianzhu region,
prompting officials to evacuate residents and drain dams,
downstream, the agency said.
Underscoring the urgency of relief efforts, the Communist Party's
top discipline watchdog vowed to punish officials for any
dereliction of duty.
Pictures from Beichuan, which rescuers have struggled to reach,
showed near total devastation. Survivors lay alongside the dead in
the open air, surrounded by rubble as state TV showed dramatic
footage of soldiers parachuting in to help.
Premier's appeal
Premier Wen Jiabao made emotional appeals to workers and comfort
orphaned children.
"Your pain is our pain," he said, standing amid a cluster of
residents, some of whom wiped away tears.
"Saving people's lives is the most important task."
The quake, the worst to hit China since 1976 when up to 300,000
died, has drowned out upbeat government propaganda three months
ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.
It has also muffled criticism from abroad over recent unrest in
Tibet, with images of the human tragedy and heroic rescue efforts
spurring offers of aid and an outpouring of sympathy.
The Party's swift action to mobilise a massive rescue force has
made a jarring comparison with that of Myanmar, whose government's
slow response to a devastating cyclone has infuriated aid and
rights groups.
China's stock market initially weakened after the quake, partly on
fears it could add to inflation that is already at a 12-year high,
but the Shanghai stock index ended 2.7% higher as fears of the
long-term impact ebbed.
Industrial production growth showed China's busy factories moving
down a gear and economists said output growth could fade in coming
months, partly due to the impact of the Sichuan quake.
Leading disaster modelling firm AIR Worldwide said the cost of the
quake was likely to exceed $20 billion.
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