China storms hamper rescue with quake toll 10,000

|PIC1|Heavy storms and wrecked roads hampered efforts to reach areas hardest-hit by China's worst earthquake in three decades on Tuesday as the death toll rose to around 10,000.

State media reports indicated that the number of dead was likely to soar, with Xinhua news agency saying 10,000 people were buried in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan province and that rescue troops had arrived for the first time at Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the quake.

Death tolls in different areas are official estimates, given lack of access to worst-hit areas and inability to make accurate body counts under collapsed buildings.

Premier Wen Jiabao, visiting Sichuan, ordered troops to clear roads to Wenchuan, a hilly area about 100 km (62 miles) from the provincial capital Chengdu.

Damage from Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake left the area, about 1,600 km southwest of Beijing, completely cut off.

But rain and thick clouds over a province famous for its giant panda reserves meant that military helicopters dispatched to the area could not yet land. Parachutists belonging to the People's Liberation Army cancelled a rescue drop due to heavy storms, Xinhua said.

State television showed highways buckled and caved in from the quake and massive rockslides lining the roads.

In Dujiangyan - about midway between Chengdu and the epicentre - there was devastation, with buildings reduced to rubble and bodies in the streets, some only partially covered.

Troops and ambulances thronged the streets, and military trucks able to do heavy lifting had arrived. But many residents simply stood beside their wrecked homes, cradling possessions in their arms, and many huddled in relief tents under heavy rain.

"At least 60 or 70 old people lived there, as well as children," said a hospital worker surnamed Huo, gesturing to a building in ruins. Mattresses and household objects could be seen poking through the rubble.

"How could they survive that?" she asked.

Rescuers had worked frantically through the night, pulling bodies from homes, schools, factories and hospitals demolished by the quake, which rolled from Sichuan across much of China.

In the same city, about 900 teenagers were buried under a collapsed three-storey school building. Premier Wen bowed three times in grief before some of the first 50 bodies pulled out, Xinhua reported.

"Not one minute can be wasted," said Wen, a trained geologist. "One minute, one second could mean a child's life."

Frantic relatives tried to push past a line of soldiers surrounding the school, desperate for news of their children.

"We're still pulling out people alive, but many, many have died," said one medical worker.

At a second school in Dujiangyan, fewer than 100 of 420 students survived, Xinhua reported.

The initial tremor, which the U.S. Geological Survey upgraded to magnitude 7.9 from 7.8, was followed by a series of aftershocks, which shook the area through the night.

"Some are still very strong," said a Dujiangyan resident. "We have put up tents outside to sleep in."

A group of about 15 British tourists were out of reach near the epicentre, likely in Wolong, Xinhua reported. China said that there had been no reports of foreign casualties as of midday (0400 GMT).

"TIME IS LIFE"

China's benchmark stock index traded down after the quake, which forced suspension of trading in the shares of 66 companies.

However, analysts said they did not expect a major economic impact from the disaster though it could mean supply shortages that fuel inflation, already at a near 12-year high.

China's Communist Party leadership announced that coping with the devastating quake and ensuring that it did not threaten social stability were now the government's priorities.

But bloggers swapped information and opinions on the quake, from whether it could have been predicted to the quality of construction - and the reason for the high number of deaths of schoolchildren.

The Health Ministry issued an urgent appeal for blood and the Ministry of Railways imposed a state of emergency for trains linking Sichuan with other provinces.

"Time is life," said an official announcement from the Communist Party Standing Committee.

The Sichuan quake was the worst to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan tremor in north-eastern China where up to 300,000 died. Then, unlike now, the Communist Party kept a tight lid on information about the extent of the disaster.

Neighbouring areas were also affected, with 189 reported dead in the north-western province of Gansu, 92 in Shaanxi province and school collapses in the municipality of Chongqing.

In Gansu, the quake caused a train to derail, spilling petrol tanks and sparking a fire, Xinhua reported. In Sichuan's Shifang, where the quake sparked a major leak of liquid ammonia, about 600 people died and as many as 2,300 remained buried, Xinhua said.

In Chengdu, many residents slept outside or in cars as aftershocks shook the city. On Tuesday, most shops were shuttered and authorities were evacuating hotels and big buildings.

"At this time of disaster, we are one family," local radio said. "We are confident that under the leadership of the Party, families can be reunited and we can leave this nightmare."