BEIJING (Agencies)
China struggled to bury its dead and help tens of thousands of injured and homeless on Friday, as a government official said more than 21,500 people have been confirmed dead in Sichuan province from this week's earthquake, with another 14,000 people buried under rubble.
Another 159,000 people were injured in Monday's 7.9-magnitude earthquake, Sichuan Vice Governor Li Chengyun told a nationally broadcast news conference.
The government said Thursday that it estimated more than 50,000 people have died from the earthquake, the country's worst in a generation.
Li said 27,560 people have been pulled out of the rubble since the disaster.
Officials have warned that it becomes increasingly unlikely to rescue survivors as the days pass. But state media said 17 people were pulled alive from quake rubble on Friday in the hard-hit Sichuan county of Beichuan.
President Hu Jintao flew to battered Sichuan and Premier Wen Jiabao said the quake damage could exceed the devastating 1976 tremor in the northeastern city of Tangshan that killed up to 300,000 people.
Wen called on officials to ensure social stability as frustration and exhaustion grew among survivors, many of whom lost everything and were living in tents or in the open air.
Thousands of men, women and children were heading by foot for Mianyang, a city near the epicenter, saying they were abandoning their ruined villages for good.
Anger has also focused on the state of school buildings, many of which crumpled in the quake, burying thousands of children and prompting the Housing Ministry to order an investigation.
"If only there is the slightest hope, we will spare no effort. If only there is one survivor in the debris, we will never give up," Wen said over the debris of a collapsed school where hundreds were buried.
In Sichuan and neighboring Chongqing, reservoirs have been damaged, some dams have cracked or are leaking water, and officials have warned the full extent of the hazard was as yet unclear. |
