Quake toll ‘still being counted’

THE number of schoolchildren who died in China’s huge earthquake last year is still being calculated, an official said.

The huge quake last May left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing, but the government has never said how many were students. Most died when their shoddily-built schools collapsed.

The children’s deaths have become a sensitive issue for the government, with victims’ parents staging protests demanding investigations.