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May 14, 2008
China
Intensifies Rescue Operations
as Quake Toll Soars
Chengdu (China)
Soldiers and officials Wednesday intensified efforts to search and
save more survivors in areas near the epicentre of Monday's
earthquake in southwest China, even as the death toll rose to about
15,000 with tens and thousands of people still missing.
The first batch of 100 elite soldiers were parachuted Wednesday
afternoon into Maoxian county, northeast of the quake epicentre
Wenchuan, which has been cut off from the other part of the country.
According to some parachutists, who made contact with military
sources, the death toll in Maoxian till Wednesday afternoon was 95,
while 92 people still remained missing. More than 836 people in the
county were reportedly injured in the quake.
Two of the county's hydropower stations were severely damaged during
the quake, and dam breaks were feared, the parachutists said.
Local government officials and the paratroopers are now engaged in
evacuation of the county residents, the military sources said.
"In eight townships - including Yingxiu, Xuankou and Wolong - the
losses are relatively serious," Wang Yi, the head of an elite
People's Armed Police unit, told the state broadcaster CCTV from
Wenchuan.
"Some towns basically have no buildings left," he said. "They have
all been razed to the ground, and the losses are now being
assessed."
Seven People's Liberation Army (PLA) helicopters had delivered 12.8
tonnes of disaster relief goods to Wenchuan and its neighbouring
counties as of Wednesday afternoon. The goods included satellite
communication systems, medicine and quilts.
According to the Chengdu Military Area Command, the helicopters
air-dropped food, drinking water and medicines to Yingxiu Township
of Wenchuan county and also carried 47 injured people to hospitals.
According to reports, the first 1,300 soldiers had arrived in areas
of Wenchuan by midafternoon Tuesday, and many more were expected to
arrive Wednesday out of the 100,000 troops and armed police sent to
Sichuan.
The nearby city of Mianyang reported more than 7,000 dead and an
estimated 18,000 buried in collapsed buildings. About 10,000 were
missing in nearby Mianzhu, where 3,000 were already confirmed dead.
Civilian and military rescue teams pulled dozens more people alive
from rubble in Yingxiu and several other areas of Sichuan Wednesday,
the military sources said.
By Wednesday afternoon, the official death toll was put at 14,866,
including about 400 in provinces bordering Sichuan.
It was the deadliest earthquake in China since 1976 when an
estimated 242,000 people died in the northern city of Tangshan near
Beijing.
May 14, 2008
Xinhua | Top
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