China raised the number of dead or missing from a devastating earthquake to more than 70,000 on Tuesday, as rescuers found more survivors eight days after the huge tremor hit. 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 new-born 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. 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.
Hundreds of aftershocks have been felt over the past week, bringing down more buildings and causing landslides. The quake warning also prompted panic in neighbouring Chongqing municipality and Guizhou province. The most lamented victims of the quake have been the thousands of children who died when school buildings collapsed.
In Juyuan town, hundreds of grieving parents demanded an annual memorial day for their children, punishment of officials or builders responsible for shoddy schools and compensation. The quake has prompted a huge outpouring of public sympathy both at home and abroad, with 13.9 billion yuan raised to date.
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