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Aftershock fears rattle quake-hit China

AFP, Chengdu
Warnings of more strong earthquakes triggered panic in China yesterday, sending thousands of people running for safety and triggering a sharp drop on the stock market.
But as the grim relief effort ploughed on following last Monday's killer quake, there was one uplifting story with rescue workers pulling out a man who miraculously survived eight days under the rubble of a power plant.
With flags at half-mast on the second day of official mourning for the more than 66,000 dead or missing, a government warning of a strong aftershock set off a panic among survivors across southwestern China.
In the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu, which was largely spared the misery of nearby areas, thousands of residents ran for the safety
of the open ground carrying bedding, chairs, clothes and other possessions.
Giant traffic jams developed as drivers headed toward the suburbs or the city's open spaces such as parks, construction sites and stadiums.
"Anyone who says he is not afraid is just kidding," said Zhu Yuejin, a 23-year-old saleswoman from Chengdu who spent the night in a car.
A warning on the Sichuan government website, quoting seismological authorities, said that a strong aftershock of 6.0 to 7.0 magnitude would strike the same area ravaged by last week's 8.0 Richter-scale tremor.
But Du Jianguo, a Beijing-based researcher with China's Institute of Earthquake Science, said it was impossible to predict aftershocks so accurately.
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"I don't know who made such a forecast, but personally I don’t believe it,” he told AFP
Nevertheless, China has been hit by more than 150 aftershocks measuring 4.0 or higher on the Richter scale since the initial tremor, including one overnight that measured 5.0.
That tremor appeared to cause further damage in the quake zone, which spans across 100,000 square kilometres (40,000 square miles) of mountainous Sichuan, an area roughly three times the size of Belgium.
In Beichuan county, one of the worst-hit areas, cranes that were being used for rescue work the previous day were tipped on their side, according to an AFP reporter there.
The warning of the powerful aftershock set off nerves on China's stock markets, contributing to a nearly 4.5 percent drop in share prices, dealers said.
State media has said that the May 12 earthquake was likely to trim 0.2 percentage points off China's booming economic growth.
The official death toll on Tuesday was 34,074, with more than 32,000 others still listed as missing, cabinet spokesman Hua Qing told a press conference.
Fuelling fears among the superstitious, residents of the southern city of Zunyi reported a massive migration of frogs and toads, which also covered Sichuan towns days before the May 12 earthquake, according to state media.
On the relief front, China's Red Cross Society on Hiesday sent its first team of psychologists into the quake zone to treat people suffering from trauma.
And despite the overwhelming odds against finding any more survivors under rubble, rescue workers Tuesday saved a man, Ma
Yuanjiang, who had spent an amazing 179 hours buried, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Workers spent more than 30 hours trying to dig the 31-year-old power plant executive out of the rubble of a destroyed building, during which they fed him sugary water through a straw, Xinhua said.
Such improbable survival stories have inspired many Chinese, who on Monday came to an unprecedented three-minute standstill to honour the victims of the earthquake.
China also allowed in foreign rescuers, but it took three days to open up its borders to them and declined some offers of help -decisions that are starting to attract international criticism.
"There was a delay in the decision-making. It would have been better if the decision was quicker," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in Tokyo.
The Japanese team, the first official foreign team on the scene, were due to head home without finding any survivors, although another Japanese unit was due later Tuesday to provide medical relief.
Chinese doctors were working round-the-clock to treat the more than 245,000 people who were injured.
"Whenever I’m caught up in my work. I'll naturally stop weeping, ’ said Huang Qiong, a surgeon who has completed 100 operations at a hospital in the badly hit town of Mian yang.
"But when I go back home and lie down on my bed, I just cannot help shedding tears," she said, quoted by the state-run China Daily.