Quake death toll hits 12,000 amid aftershocks

5/13/2008 - 10:12:24 AM

The official death toll in the Chinese earthquake rose to 12,000 today with thousands more still missing amid reports of strong aftershocks in the region.

A day after the 7.9 magnitude quake struck, state media said rescuers had reached the epicentre in Wenchuan county – cut off by the disaster and where the number of casualties was unknown.

But rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a mission to the area due to heavy storms.

Nearly 10,000 people died in Sichuan province alone and 300 others in other provinces and the mega-city of Chongqing with its surrounding rural areas, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

At least 10,000 people remained buried in Mianzhu, 60 miles from the epicentre, the agency said.

The tremors caused a wide swath of damage across central China, sending people fleeing with their few salvaged belongings.

Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in the city of Chengdu. The US Geological Survey measured the shock between magnitude 4 and 6, one of the strongest since yesterday’s quake.

Just east of the epicentre, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county, a more than six-story building reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high.The deaths were separate from another levelled school in Dujiangyan where 900 students are feared dead.

Xinhua said up to 5,000 people were killed and 80% of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan, in a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan’s provincial capital of Chengdu. The government has poured more than 16,000 troops into the area with tens of thousands more on the way.

In Dujiangyan, rescue teams were trying to get to a woman who was eight months pregnant and trapped in a seven-story apartment building that collapsed.

Buildings were knocked down on every block and corpses were laid out in the street. People were seeking rides out of town, where makeshift tent cities were being erected as shelter from rain that began today and could affect rescue efforts.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to the area to oversee rescue efforts, said a push was on to clear roads and restore electricity as soon as possible.

“We must try our best to open up roads to the epicentre and rescue people trapped in disaster-hit areas,” he said.

China’s Ministry of Health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the victims of the quake. “There is a large demand for blood in quake-hit areas and we hope the public actively donate blood,” a spokesman said.

The disaster comes less than three months before the start of the Beijing Olympics.

The tragedy is just the latest event to tarnish the run-up to the event meant to showcase China’s rise that has been marked by internal strife and anti-China sentiment abroad.

Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from around the world.

The quake was China’s deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976.