Dujiangyan, CHINA (Reuters)
China's most devastating earthquake in three decades killed more than 12,000 people with the toll likely to soar after state media said on Tuesday nearly 19,000 were buried under rubble in one city alone.
Storms were hampering rescue efforts in the mountainous area around the epicenter of Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake that pummeled the southwestern province of Sichuan.
In Yingxiu, a town of 12,000 people, only 2,000 had been found alive, state television quoted He Biao, an official, as saying.
More than 12,000 people have died in Sichuan and more than 26,000 were injured, according to vice governor Li Chengyun.
Another 18,645 people were also buried under debris in the city of Mianyang, neighboring Wenchuan, Xinhua news agency said, suggesting the death toll was likely to rise sharply.
A strong aftershock rocked Chengdu on Tuesday, one of 2,354 in the province over the past day, unnerving residents.
More than 50,000 troops had joined disaster relief efforts or were advancing to the area. Thousands had been ordered to parachute into Wenchuan, where rain and thick clouds had prevented military helicopters from landing.
Premier Wen Jiabao, visiting Sichuan, ordered troops to clear roads to Wenchuan. "Please speed up the shipping of food. The kids have nothing to eat now," Wen said amid a crowd of crying children.
The Sichuan quake is the worst to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan tremor in northeastern China where up to 300,000 died.
Offers of aid have come from around the world. The United States, Britain, Japan, the European Union, South Korea and Taiwan have offered assistance since the disaster, which occurred three months before the Beijing Olympics.
Olympic officials assured foreigners planning to visit China for the Games that the country was safe. A minute's silence would start each stop of the domestic torch relay and celebrations would be scaled down.
The International Olympic Committee said it would donate $1 million and the United Nations also offered support. |
