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Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - Web posted at 10:35:14 GMT China says over 70 000 dead or missing from earthquake CHENGDU - China raised the number of dead or missing from a devastating earthquake to more than 70 000 yesterday, as rescuers found more survivors eight days after the huge tremor hit. |
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A government statement said the number killed had now topped 40 000, and state news agency Xinhua reported that a further 32 000 were missing. Authorities had previously said they expected the final death toll to exceed 50 000. More than 247 000 were injured. Anger was building among bereaved parents in Sichuan over the way many school buildings had collapsed, burying whole classrooms full of children. In one town, in a rare public protest, hundreds demanded punishment for anyone guilty of shoddy construction. Xinhua reported a 60-year-old woman was rescued in Pengzhou, more than 196 hours after the May 12 quake struck. It said she had survived on rainwater. In Wenchuan county, epicentre of the quake in mountainous Sichuan province, Ma Yuanjiang, 31, was found alive. His body was "as fragile as that of a newborn baby", Chongqing Xinqiao hospital president Wang Weidong said, according to Xinhua. Rescuers also pulled about 10 people off a mountain near Shifang town where they had been building an electricity generation station when the quake struck. Li Tengchang, 38, said 40 of his colleagues had been killed by falling boulders, and that others were still alive on the mountain. "When the wait wore on, we thought no one would come save us and we would probably die," said Li, who was being treated for kidney damage. "I survived purely on my will. I told myself I had to live and I had to survive. I have a 60-year-old mother, a wife and two young children." Meanwhile, nearly 9 000 people were evacuated from the base of Shiziliang Mountain near Guangyuan city over concerns about huge cracks on its slopes. And Beichuan, one the of the worst hit towns, was closed off after official warnings of fresh tremors. In the provincial capital of Chengdu, tens of thousands of people were preparing to sleep another night in the open, despite pleas by authorities for calm after a television prediction of another powerful earthquake. That report, along with fresh aftershocks and forecast heavy rain, compounded the difficulties for military, government and private workers trying to ensure millions of homeless are fed and housed. Nampa-Reuters |
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