Death toll exceeds 12,000 in Sichuan, 9,400 trapped

A strong quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. on Monday, causing more than 12,000 reported deaths by 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday in Sichuan alone.

(China Daily, Xinhua and agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-14 02:03

Rescuers were Tuesday night racing against time to find survivors a day after the strongest quake to hit China in 32 years jolted southwestern Sichuan province, demolishing buildings and trapping tens of thousands beneath the rubble.
Ordered by the General Staff of the PLA headquarters, up to 600 People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops entered Wenchuan county on foot, the epicenter, late Tuesday and pulled more than 1,000 people from debris, according to the disaster relief headquarters of the Chengdu Military Command.It was not clear how many had survived. The county city is estimated to have 110,000 permanent and migrant residents.
Earlier reports from Sichuan said only about 2,300 people of a town in the hardest hit county, named Yingxiu, out of a total population of 10,000, were known to have survived.
The confirmed national death toll reached 12,300 by 2 am Wednesday, nearly all of them in Sichuan, according to the temporary disaster relief headquarters headed by Premier Wen Jiabao, who arrived in Dujiangyan, to oversee the rescue work hours after the quake.
Another 9,404 were buried in debris, 7,841 were missing and 26,206 people were injured, according to the headquarters.
"We will try our best to send milk powder to parents and ensure children do not go hungry," Wen said on Tuesday after learning that some infants were running short of food and many people needed drinking water and tents.
Wen was visiting cities worst hit by the quake, including Dujiangyan, Deyang and Mianzhu.
He said the rescue work had entered a crucial stage and asked people to remain calm, confident and united as he inspected a factory in Mianzhu and urged officials to ensure rapid distribution of food.
He comforted a crying child, saying, "Don't cry. Food will be sent in a short time. Biscuits and milk powder will be sent in a short time."
He told villagers: "I know some of your family and friends have died. We are deeply saddened. Some people are still trapped. We will do our utmost to rescue them."
The premier ordered that all rocks and mudslides blocking roads to the epicenter be cleared by midnight.
"People are trapped in the debris; we must seize every second," he told an emergency meeting.
Xia Guofu, Sichuan provincial military commander, led a team of more than 300 soldiers into Wenchuan and more troops were expected imminently, said Ye Wanyong, political commissar of the command.
Rescuers who arrived at Yingxiu Town of Wenchuan on foot Tuesday afternoon said the town was inaccessible by road.
The soldiers reported more than 70 percent of the roads in the town damaged, and almost all bridges had collapsed. Many people were believed to be under the debris.
Previous attempts by rescuers to reach the epicenter "by land, air and water" failed because of landslides, telecommunication breakdown and rain, an official with the Sichuan provincial relief headquarters said.

50,000 soldiers mobilized
As of Tuesday night, nearly 20,000 soldiers and armed policemen had arrived in Sichuan province, with 30,000 more troops advancing toward the quake-hit regions by planes, trains and trucks, and on foot, the Ministry of Defense said.
A large number of search and rescue workers are urgently needed in quake-hit areas, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Tuesday.
Wang Zhenyao, director of the disaster relief department of the ministry, told a press conference on Tuesday that people trapped in collapsed buildings could survive for up to a week.
According to Wang, transportation hurdles and the huge number of victims were the two major difficulties facing rescue and relief workers.
Meanwhile, huge amounts of relief materials are required, Wang said, adding that up to 60,000 tents are needed in Mianyang alone, putting further pressure on transport.
Wang, while expressing appreciation for all domestic and foreign donations, said conditions were "not yet ripe" to allow foreign rescue teams into the country.
"At this point, transportation in affected areas is still blocked and it is impossible even for our own rescue teams to reach the disaster-hit areas," he said.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday also welcomed the international community's aid to China's relief efforts.
Many international organizations and foreign leaders have expressed sympathy and pledged to offer help.
Qin Gang told a news briefing that no casualties of foreigners in quake-affected area had been reported.
A group of 31 British tourists have arrived safe in Chengdu, Qin Gang late on Tuesday.
The 31 British tourists encountered the massive quake Monday afternoon on their way back from a tour to Wolong, and all of them finally returned to Chengdu safe without any casualty or injury, with the assistance of the police of Dujiangyan, a city near Chengdu, according to Qin.
Train derailed
A 40-car freight train carrying gasoline derailed and caught fire in neighboring Gansu during the quake and was still burning Tuesday evening, a railway official said. One injury was reported.
The train, including 13 tank cars filled with gasoline, derailed and burst into flames on Monday in Gansu province when the quake cut a major rail line, Wang Yongping, spokesman for the Ministry of Railways said.
It was still on fire more than 26 hours after the accident, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The heat of the fire could be felt 100 m away.
Wang said all the railway lines affected by the quake in Sichuan province had been reopened, apart from the line with the burning freight train. That railway runs from Baoji in Shaanxi province to Guangyuan in Sichuan.
The earthquake left trains and passengers stranded on major rail lines leading to Chengdu, Xinhua said. At least 149 cargo trains and 31 passenger trains were affected and passengers were being moved to safety yesterday.

Emergency warning
Water resources authorities issued an emergency warning after water projects suffered severe damage in the quake.
According to E Jingping, vice-minister of water resources, the quake has resulted in the damage of "a considerable number of water projects".
"Given that water reservoirs are prone to risks, dam collapses might lead to mass casualties if inspections and rescue work are not conducted in a timely manner," E told Xinhua after an urgent video conference with the water authorities in Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Gansu and Shaanxi.

The mourning begins in Dujiangyan
By Zhang Haizhou and Huang Zhiling (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-05-13 17:26

Dujiangyan, Sichuan -- Zhou Xingrong never thought she would not talk to her 16-year-old son again after Lu Qianliang shouted: "Mother, I'm in school!" on the Monday morning.
But after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Monday with its epicenter near here, many students like Lu were still buried beneath the rubble early Tuesday morning due to the collapsed main building of the Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan county, east of Dujiangyan. The city is one of the most severely damaged by the quake.
As the time passed, the hope for those students to come out alive was getting more and more slim. But their parents could do nothing more than stand in the heavy downpour in dark and pray for their loved ones.
Zhou was one of those frustrated parents. She was also in the main building meeting with her son's head teacher when the ground shook. She managed to escape from the collapsed building because she was closer to the staircase than her son.
"I rushed out of the building onto the sports ground from the stairs when there was a very loud noise. When I turned back, the whole building had collapsed," she said. "But my son is still buried in the rubble and 14 hours have passed."
"He is in the final year and will soon graduate from middle school," explained the 53-year-old, who could barely contain her sadness and frustration when she talked to China Daily at about 4:30 am on Tuesday.
Not everyone in the building managed to escape from the disaster as Zhou did. Local residents said more than 1,000 students and teachers were having classes in the school at that time.
Except for those students on the ground floor who rushed out immediately, it seems most of the others from the upper floors of the four-storey building may have lost their lives.
The sports ground has been turned into a makeshift memorial area, as about 50 bodies, most of them covered with white cloths, were placed in rows under a big tent.
Heartbroken parents lit candles in front of the bodies of their sons and daughters. Many of them were crying out their regret for letting their children to come to the school. They prayed for forgiveness as their eyes were flooded with tears.
"It's my fault, my baby. I shouldn't have let you come to this school," a mother cried while wiping away the blood from the corpse of her daughter.
"I sent you here to get education, but what you get was death," the woman wailed.
Rescue work continued with the hopes of finding someone alive, despite knowing the chances were slim.
Medical teams and ambulances from all over Sichuan Province arrived in Dujiangyan, some even coming from Chongqing. The rescue teams that went in search of life among the debris were also from different parts of the province.
A local rescue team member said he saved a life, though they found far more dead bodies.
"We carried an injured boy with a broken leg out of the rubble," recalled rescuer Xue Cangming from the National Grid's Dujiangyan bureau. "I believed he jumped out of the window when the building collapsed.
"But he is considered really lucky even you could see his bone sticking out of his leg, considering most of the trapped are feared died," he added. Xue reported he had found six to seven bodies since he arrived at the school at about 2:45 am.
Premier reemphasizes saving lives in quake relief
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-14 06:48

MIANYANG, Sichuan - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday evening that saving lives is still the major task of current relief work against a major quake which jolted southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday afternoon.
Wen made the remarks at a meeting of the disaster relief headquarters under the State Council.
He urged to seize opportunities to rescue people, reduce casualties, and resume roads to the quake-hit areas as soon as possible by all means.
"Transportation, electricity, communication and water supply should be resumed to ensure that the disaster relief work goes on successfully, and resuming transportation is the key," he said.
He also asked the health department to assign 3,000 medical staff to Sichuan as soon as possible.
More than 20,000 soldiers and armed policemen have arrived in Sichuan and another 20,000 will arrive Wednesday. The air force's 18 helicopters served 28 tasks to drop 12.5 tons of foods and other relief material on Tuesday.
The Chinese International Rescue Team and local rescue teams have arrived at quake-hit areas and rescue people from debris.
Wen Tuesday afternoon visited Deyang and Mianyang cities, where he encouraged people to bravely confront natural disasters and overcome the hardships together.
He visited a primary school where more than one hundred children were buried under debris when the quake occurred.
More than 70 students have been rescued. Wen said saving lives should be on top priority and all the collapsed buildings should be thoroughly inspected.
He urged relative departments to make proper arrangements of the victims, send food, tents, medical staff and medicine to them as soon as possible.
Around 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wen visited Jiuzhou Stadium in Mianyang city, where more than 10,000 victims were temporarily resettled. He required relative departments to take good care of the orphans, helping them step out of the shadow of the disaster and grow up as happily as other children.