05/15/2008
The death toll from China's massive earthquake could soar to more than 50,000, state media reported on Thursday, as rescuers struggled to help survivors and hope faded for the thousands buried under rubble.
Some 20,000 are confirmed dead after Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake and 25,000 were buried in areas rescuers have struggled to reach, battling landslides, buckled roads and collapsed bridges.
The Communist Party told officials to "ensure social stability" as the quake spawned rumours of chemical spills, fears of dam bursts and scenes of collective desperation.
Xinhua news agency said 17 "malicious rumourmongers" had been punished for spereading "false information, sensational statements and sapping public confidence".
Rescuers in the city of Dujiangyan, in the worst-hit province of Sichuan, wrapped corpses dragged from the rubble in tarpaulins and sped them to morgues.
They were so busy that a notice outside one collapsed school asked parents to search for missing children in shifts.
About 130,000 army and paramilitary troops assisted the search and rescue effort in Sichuan, sifting through dozens of towns turned to rubble.
But three days after the quake, hopes of pulling survivors from the ruins dimmed and the waves of rescuers appear to be hampered by lack of specialised equipment.
Still, there were moments of joy and relief. "Thank you, thank you," one 22-year-old said after she was eventually pulled to safety, covering her face against the light in Dujiangyan. She had been trapped, unable to move, under the ruins of a hospital.
A teenage girl told Xinua how she and her classmates sang pop songs together as they lay trapped and injured in the ruins of their high school. Li Anning, 16, was trapped for 40 hours in the rubble of the five-storey school before People's Liberation Army soldiers rescued her.
Submit this story to:
Digg
Del.icio.us
Technorati
