RESCUE workers sifted through tangled debris looking for survivors yesterday following China's worst earthquake in three decades, as the death toll soared to more than 12,000 and state media said nearly 19,000 people were buried under rubble in one city alone.
Rain hampered rescue efforts in the mountains around the epicentre of Monday's 7.9-magnitude quake in the south-western province of Sichuan.
State media reported scenes of devastation as rescuers gradually filed into villages near the epicentre i
n Wenchuan, a remote county – now cut off by landslides – about 60 miles north-west of the provincial capital, Chengdu.
An advance squad of more than 30 People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops arrived at the town of Yingxiu in Wenchuan and rescued 300 injured residents.
Only 2,000 were found alive of the town's 12,000 population, according to He Biao, a local official. "They could hear people under the debris calling for help, but no-one could (help], because there were no professional rescue teams," state television quoted him as saying.
About 60,000 people were unaccounted for in Wenchuan, where 600 armed police were due to arrive early today.
"What we most need is medicine. There is no medicine, there are no doctors and after such a long time, no food," Mr He said.
More than 12,000 people died in Sichuan province and more than 26,000 were injured.
A further 18,645 people were buried under debris in the city of Mianyang, the official news agency Xinhua said, suggesting the death toll was likely to rise sharply. Thousands were reported to be buried under factories, schools and other buildings elsewhere. Hundreds more people have died in neighbouring provinces.
Several reservoirs upstream of the Min river were "in a very dangerous status and the dams may burst", Xinhua reported.
Flood relief authorities had ordered officials to "thoroughly inspect and remove hidden dangers of dams", the agency said.
Officials have warned that more powerful aftershocks could hit the region and mudslides could add to the toll.
A strong aftershock rocked Chengdu yesterday, one of 2,354 in the province in the past day.
More than 50,000 troops joined disaster relief efforts. Thousands were ordered to parachute into Wenchuan, where rain and clouds had prevented military helicopters from landing.
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, ordered soldiers to clear roads. "Please speed up the shipping of food. The kids have nothing to eat now," Mr Wen said, amid crying children.
In Dujiangyan – about half-way between Chengdu and the epicentre – bodies lined streets and residents cradled possessions in front of homes reduced to piles of rubble.
Rescuers worked through the night, pulling bodies from ruined buildings.
About 900 teenagers were buried in a collapsed three-storey school building.
"We're still pulling out people alive, but many, many have died," said one medical worker.
Eleven tourists suspended in a gondola over a gorge in Sichuan's Jiuzhaigou area were brought to safety after being trapped for nearly 24 hours.
Elsewhere in Gansu province, a 40-car freight train with 13 petrol tankers, derailed in the quake, was still burning last night.
A group of 19 British tourists was also missing near the epicentre after travelling by coach to Wolong, a large panda reserve.
The tourists were clients of Travel Collection, which is part of the holiday company Kuoni.
The Foreign Office has advised against all but essential travel to Sichuan province. Olympic officials moved to assure foreigners that China was safe. A minute's silence will start each stop of the domestic torch relay and celebrations will be scaled down.
Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in. Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, discussed the disaster in a phone call with the US president, George Bush, state TV reported.
And the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims.
Pandas in disaster zone safeTHE 86 pandas living in a huge breeding centre close to the epicentre of the Chinese earthquake have all been reported unharmed.
State officials and overseas zoological experts had feared for the future of the panda population at the Wolong National Nature Reserve since the earthquake closed off the remote, mountainous area in central Sichuan province.
But late last night officials at Wolong used a satellite phone to contact the state forestry administration and report that the pandas were out of danger, the official Xinhua News Agency said. All 13 panda cubs had been taken to safety.
Earlier phone and e-mail contact had failed and staff at Edinburgh Zoo had feared for their colleagues in Wolong, who had travelled to the area to arrange for a pair of pandas to come to Scotland next year.
More than 60 other pandas in Chengdu and Ya'an are also safe.
The full article contains 825 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
