Desperate search goes on, death toll hits 32,476
China announced the three days starting Monday as national mourning days for the victims who died in a massive earthquake that struck southwest China’s Sichuan Province on May 12.
National flags are to fly at half-mast and all public amusements will be suspended for three days from Monday as China begins an official mourning period for victims of the May 12 earthquake.
The State Council, the Cabinet, on Sunday ordered a nationwide display of respect for the dead.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with a rescuer when he inspects disaster relief work in the quake-hit Xuankou Town of Wenchuan County, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, May 17, 2008. [Xinhua]
China’s missions abroad were also ordered to observe the order, and condolence books are to be opened in the Foreign Ministry and Chinese embassies and consulates around the world.
The public are asked to stand in silence for three minutes from 2:28 pm on Monday, the time the deadly quake hit, while automobiles, trains, and ships would sound their air sirens.
The confirmed death toll from the disaster has risen to 32,476 by 2:00pm Sunday, and the toll would possibly rise to more than 50,000 as many, still buried in rubbles, are feared dead.
During the mourning days, the torch relay for the Beijing Olympic Games will be suspended to mourn the quake victims.
Beijing Olympic organizers said in a statement that the suspension starts Monday "to express our deep mourning to the victims of the earthquake."
And on Sunday, China Seismological Bureau Sunday revised the magnitude of the earthquake from 7.8 to 8.0 on the Richter scale.
The number of injured in magnitude 8.0 earthquake reached 220,109, it said.
In Sichuan alone, a total of 31,978 people were killed since Monday’s deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake, with 209,905 others injured.
Statistics from the emergency response office show that the death toll in Deyang and Mianyang cities of the province hit 10,341 and 11,874 respectively.
The office also gave a breakdown of the death toll in other areas as 4,156 in Chengdu, 2,586 in Guangyuan, 2,871 in Aba and 23 in Ya’an.
Outside Sichuan, the death toll was 364 in Gansu Province, 113 in Shaanxi Province, 16 in Chongqing Municipality, two in Henan Province, one in Yunnan Province, one in Hubei Province, and one in Hunan Province.
Desperate Rescue Continues
Rescue workers have plucked more than 60 more survivors from the rubble following Monday’s quake in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, even as hopes fade for the estimated 10,000 people or so still trapped under the rubble.
An aftershock of the massive earthquake, of 6.0 magnitude early on Sunday centered 80 km (50 miles) west of Guangyuan, the latest in a series of aftershocks to hit Sichuan.
There was no immediate word of additional damage or casualties in the area, Xinhua said.
In the provincial capital, Chengdu, some 200 km south of the new tremor’s epicenter, buildings swayed and people rushed out into the streets, risking a soaking from a passing storm.
But military facilities close to the affected zone, including nuclear research facilities, are "all in a safe and controllable state," a Ministry of Defense official told a press conference in Beijing Sunday afternoon.
Ma Jian, deputy director of the Combat Department of the General Staff Headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), told the press conference hosted by the Information Office under the State Council that the nuclear facilities have been put under strict protection by forces of the armed police and PLA immediately after the strike of earthquake on May 12.
"I could say in a responsible manner that all these facilities are safe and secure," Ma said. "There is no problem at all."
In Yingxiu, close to the epicenter of Monday’s quake, at least 56 people were rescued, the Xinhua news agency said.
Soldiers engaged in relief work "have their hands stained with blood and earth after days of searches in the debris," Xinhua added.
Thousands of people have fled in the Beichuan area amid fears a lake could burst its banks, hampering rescue efforts after the deadliest earthquake in more than three decades.
At least one barrier lake, formed after rocks blocked a river, has burst its banks but caused no casualties, Xinhua said.
Japanese rescue team members (top) search for survivors as Chinese rescue team members carry a body at a badly damaged junior high school in earthquake-hit Beichuan, Sichuan province May 18, 2008.
Rescue work has been complicated by bad weather, treacherous terrain and hundreds of aftershocks.
President Hu Jintao urged emergency workers not to give up efforts to find survivors. "We should put people first and saving people’s lives is still the top priority of the relief work," he said.
Offers of help have flooded in and rescue teams from Japan, Russia, South Korea and Singapore and China’s Taiwan region have arrived.
Donations from home and abroad have topped 8.945 billion yuan (about $1.3 billion), according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Fujiya Koji, head of the Japanese rescue team in Sichuan, said that chances of finding more survivors were low.
"We haven’t been able to find any survivors yet. Generally by this stage the likelihood of survival is low. They say they have been finding some in Beichuan and we’ll certainly keep trying," he added.
China has said it expects the final death toll from the earthquake to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes and the days are numbered in which survivors can be found.
Premier Wen said the quake was "the biggest and most destructive" in decades and the quick response had helped reduce casualties.
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