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Rescue workers dig through flattened school, homes

Death toll tops 12,000 in China quake

AP, Dujiangyan
The toll of the dead and missing soared as rescue workers dug through flattened schools and homes yesterday in a desperate attempt to find survivors of China's worst earthquake in three decades.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone, and 18,645 were still buried in debris in the city of Mian yang, near the epicentre of Monday's massive, 7.9-magnitude quake.
The Sichuan Daily newspaper reported on its Website that more than 26,000 people were injured in Mianyang.
The numbers of casualties was expected to rise due to the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.
There was little prospect that many survivors would be found under the rubble. Only 58 people were extricated from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told Xinhua. In one county, 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed.
Rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a rescue mission to the epicentre due to heavy storms, Xinhua reported.
More than two dozen British and American tourists who were thought to be panda-watching in the area also remained missing.
Officials urged the public not to abandon hope.
"Survivors can hold on for some time. Now it's not time to give up," Wang Zhenyao, disaster relief division director at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, told reporters in
Beijing.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed to the area to oversee rescue efforts, said a push was on to clear roads and restore electricity as soon as possible. His visit to the disaster scene was prominently featured on state TV, a gesture meant to reassure people that the ruling party was doingall it could.
"We will save the people," Wen said through a bullhorn to survivors as he toured the disaster scene, in footage shown on CCTV "As long as the people are there, factories can be built into even better ones, and so can the towns and counties."
State media said rescue workers had reached the epicentre in Wenchuan county where the number of casualties was still unknown. The quake was cantered just north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu in central China, tearing into urban areas and mountain villages.
Earthquake rescue experts in orange jumpsuits extricated bloody survivors on stretchers from demolished buildings.
Sonic 20,(XX) soldiers and police arrived in the disaster area with 30,000 more on the way by plane, train, trucks and even on foot, tne Defence Ministry toldXinhua.
Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in Chengdu The US Geological Survey measured the shocks between magnitude 4 and 6, some of the strongest since Monday's quake.
Zhou Chun, a 70-ycarold retired mechanic, was leaving Dujiangyan with a soiled light blue blanket draped over his shoulders.
"My wife died in die quake. My house was destroyed," he said. "I am going to Chengdu, but I don't know where I'll live."
Zhou and other survivors were nulling luggage and clutching plastic bags of food amid a steady drizzle and the constant wall of ambulances.
Just east of the epicentre, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county a six-story building reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high, according to Xinhua. Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan alone.
At another levelled school in Dujiangyan, 900 students were feared dead. As bodies of teenagers were carried out on doors used as makeshift stretchers, relatives lit incense and candles and also set off fireworks to ward away evil spirits.
Elsewhere in Gansu province, a 40-car freight train derailed in the quake that included 13 gasoline tankers was still bumingTuesday, Xinhua said.
Gasoline lines grew in Chengdu and grocery stores shelves were almost empty The Ministry of Health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the quake victims.
Fifteen missing British tourists were believed to have been in the area at the time of the quake and were "out of reach," Xinhua reported.
Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from the United States, Japan and (he European Union, amongothers.
The Dalai I.arna, who has been vilified by Chinese authorities who blame him for recent unrest in Tibet, offered prayers for the victims The epicentre is just south of some Tibetan mountain areas that saw anti-govemment protests earlier this year.
Beijing Games organisers said the Olympic torch relay will continue as planned through tne quake-affected area next mon tlx
The Chinese government said it would welcome outside aid, and Russia was sending a plane with rescu -ers and supplies, the country's Interfax news agency reported.