Fears over China lake sparks more panic

BEICHUAN, China - Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims and rescuers are fleeing areas near the epicenter over fears of floods from a river blocked by landslides.

The stampede of thousands of people on Saturday afternoon came as Chinese officials said the official death toll from the earthquake had risen to 28,881 people with 198,347 injured.

Landslides caused by Monday's quake had blocked the Qingzhu River in Beichuan county, creating two lakes with fast-rising water levels, an official at the Guanzhuang disaster relief center said.

Officials, worried that one or both of the lakes could burst, forced the evacuation of 10 villages and townships downriver, he said.

About 30,000 people live downstream, not including the many rescuers and others who were in the area because of the quake relief effort, he said.

Journalist Diego Laje, one of those ordered to evacuate, said a stampede of thousands of people began as military officers warned them to leave a low-lying area near the river.

The official at the relief center said the one lake has an estimated 11 million cubic meters of water and the other has 1.5 million cubic meters.

Chinese government experts were considering blasting holes to allow controlled releases of the water, which was quickly rising, the official said.

The communities ordered evacuated, all in the northern Sichuan province's Beichuan county, include: Guanzhuang township, Suhe township, Liangshui township, Qifo township, Malu township, Zhuyuan township, Shangsi township, Xiasi township, Baolun township, and Jiuhexiang township.

Elsewhere in Sichuan province, rescuers continued to search for more survivors, buoyed by news of the rescue of two men more than 110 hours after the quake.

A German tourist was pulled out alive from under rubble in Taoguan village Saturday, 114 hours after being buried, China's official news agency Xinhua reported. The man's identity remained unknown, Xinhua reported.

Xinhua also reported that soldiers dug out a 52-year-old man who was buried in ruins for 117 hours.

Xinhua said Saturday that the man had been buried under a collapsed building in Beichuan, not far from the epicenter of Monday's earthquake.

A German Foreign Ministry official said that country's government had no information about the German man or the rescue. The Xinhua report said more than 20 Chinese soldiers helped rescue the tourist Saturday morning.

The man was rushed to the medical center at the Wenchuan disaster relief headquarters, but his condition was not immediately clear, Xinhua reported.

The discovery of the tourist added urgency to China's massive rescue operations.

"Saving lives is still the top priority," Chinese President Hu Jintao said Friday, as he arrived in the quake zone. Hu described the current situation as "the most crucial phase" of the rescue effort. "We must race against time to overcome all difficulties."

The original magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit Sichuan Province the hardest, shattering communities, leveling dozens of schools and burying transportation routes with landslides.

At least 12,300 people remain buried in the debris of the ruins of at least 436,000 properties, officials say. More than 4.8 million are homeless.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington's estimate of the number still buried is less than half of the more than 25,000 reported Thursday by state-run news agency Xinhua. Official reports and Xinhua's numbers have often differed, reflecting the chaotic situation in the days after the earthquake hit.

Most of the victims died in Sichuan province, the embassy spokesman said, quoting provincial officials. At least 500 people died elsewhere. One of the victims was a German citizen, Wang said.

China's State Council says the number of deaths could top 50,000.

Yet hope still emerged from amid the horror of the nation's worst disaster in recent years, with survivors pulled from the rubble four days after being buried in the rubble.

Rescuers pulled a student from the debris of Beichuan Middle School, 80 hours after the quake collapsed the building, Xinhua reported.

Two more people were saved after being buried for 95 hours, the agency added.

Rescuers said they could hear a weak yell for help from under the building's rubble and are "expecting more miracles," according to state-run media.

Hu flew to Mianyang in the hard-hit Sichuan province, which has become a massive refugee camp for survivors, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

"The challenge is still daunting, the task is still arduous and the time pressing," Hu said.

housands of people who were uprooted around the region have taken shelter at the city's main sports gym and other facilities. Reports say 7,395 people have died and 18,645 are trapped in debris in the city.

Xinhua reported 135,000 Chinese troops and medics are involved in the rescue effort across 58 counties and cities.

The scope of the operation is such that Beijing has allocated until now nearly $5 billion for the rescue relief fund.

Search-and-rescue help is also coming from outside the country. A team from Japan entered Sichuan province early Friday, Xinhua reported. Rescuers from Russia, South Korea and Singapore were expected to arrive soon.

This weekend, the United States will send into China two U.S. Air Force C-17's carrying supplies, which include tents and generators. The U.S. offer of assistance is open-ended and the flights could be followed by others, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters on Friday.

Earlier, the United States pledged $500,000 to help China in its quake relief efforts and that money has been delivered by the U.S. Red Cross.

Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Vietnam and Poland were among the countries providing humanitarian assistance, according to Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Louis Michel, Development Aid Commissioner to the EU, has said it will give initial emergency aid of $3.1 million to cover supplies including food and blankets, The Associated Press has reported, to demonstrate solidarity with China.

China Quake: More than 12,000 Dead

China's death toll from a massive earthquake appeared to soar Wednesday as rescuers delved into some of the hardest-hit areas of the country's southwest.

The official death toll reported by state-run media stands at just over 12,000, but an unofficial tally of individual communities provided by the news services added up to 19,565.

Local officials said the quake killed more than 7,700 people in the town of Yingxiu -- about three-quarters of everyone who lived there, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Yingxiu is in hard-hit Sichuan province, where 20,000 Chinese soldiers have been mobilized for rescue and recovery, state media reported. Another 30,000 were en route to the region.

Rescuers found at least 500 dead Tuesday in the Chinese district at the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, while heavy rain, collapsed bridges and damaged roads complicated efforts to get troops and aid workers to the worst-hit towns.

The rain drove some people back inside homes even as more aftershocks rattled the region, witnesses reported.
The epicenter of Monday's quake was in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, about 1,500 km (960 miles) southwest of Beijing. Xinhua reported the death toll exceeded 12,000 before Wednesday's latest reports, with more than 26,000 injured, 7,800 missing and more than 9,400 trapped beneath debris.

During a visit to a school in Shifang, where more than 100 children were trapped beneath rubble, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised that saving lives was a top priority.

"We will put our best efforts forward to save all those alive who can be saved," he said. "This disaster has all tested us. We all have to band together and have confidence and push forward."

Wen also visited a stadium in the city of Mianyang, where more than 10,000 people have been temporarily resettled, Xinhua reported.

"The transportation of food must be faster," the news agency quoted him as telling government officials. "Children are short of food."

Hundreds of soldiers and disaster workers descended on Wenchuan, many of them digging by hand, according to the disaster relief headquarters of the Chengdu Military Area Command. Soldiers said only 3,000 of the town's 12,000 residents survived the quake.

More than 70 percent of the town's roads were damaged, and almost all bridges had collapsed, the soldiers reported.

All the beds were filled at Sichuan University Huaxi Hospital, one of the largest in the provincial capital of Chengdu.

Nurses said the most common injuries were broken bones, bruises and scrapes. State media reported thousands of victims had sought care at the hospital, where medical supplies were running low.

Fear of becoming trapped during an aftershock led about 200 people to sleep outside in cots, on lawn chairs and on the ground outside the hospital in an area intended for bicycles.

At the Third Military Medical University Southwest Hospital, state-run media reported that nurses and doctors were donating their own blood.

China is no stranger to natural disasters: A 1976 earthquake here killed more than 250,000 people. But analysts said the Chinese response to Monday's quake has been the most transparent of any disaster, with state media frequently updating casualty tolls and deploying troops rapidly to the worst-hit areas.

"The government was very secretive about it, which in turn allowed the disease the spread across China and Asia a lot quicker than it otherwise would have done," Leather told CNN. "This time they have been very open about it, which I think is maybe showing signs that lessons have been learned."

Li Chengyun, vice governor of Sichuan, said about 3.5 million homes were destroyed in the province. David Jones, an English teacher in the city of Chengdu, said residents were camping out on riverbanks, in parking lots and other open spaces, despite "terrible" weather.

"People are doing everything they can to stay outside," he said. "In a lot of cases, they can't return to their buildings."

He said survivors were lining up to donate blood and remained calm, but appeared "extremely tired."

"The people here have been really helpful to each other, making sure everybody has supplies," he said. "I haven't seen any price-gouging. The mood here has gone from shock, fear, to tiredness."

Wenchuan is the refuge for much of China's panda population, and the State Forestry Administration said the 67 captive pandas among the more than 130 pandas in the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve were not injured. However, the caregivers were worried about the bamboo leaf supply, the main source of food for the panda's.

In other developments Tuesday:


- U.S. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush had spoken with China's President Hu Jintao in the morning. "He expressed his condolences on the earthquake and reiterated his offer to assist in any way possible," she said.

- China accepted a $500,000 U.S. contribution for relief efforts that will be given to the International Red Cross. The United States is "prepared to do more," said Ky Luu, director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance for the U.S. Agency for International Development, but China has not requested aid from the United States.

- Zhen Yao Wang, a spokesman for China's civil administration department, said China is thankful for international assistance, "and we will make efforts to ensure that these materials and money will reach the disaster hit area as early as possible."

Source: CNN

8,600 Killed By Huge China Quake

Thousands of people have been killed by Monday's powerful earthquake in just one affected region of central China, its government said, with the toll expected to keep rising as bodies are retrieved from schools, homes and factories.

In addition, at least 48 people were killed in the northwest Gansu Province, Xinhua said.

Several hundred students were also feared to be buried in collapsed school buildings, the agency said.

China's Seismological Bureau said the earthquake had affected more than half the country's provinces and municipalities.

U.S. President George W. Bush released a statement saying his country "stands ready to help in any way possible."

"I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy," Bush said.

China's government is releasing $2.89 million to respond to the disaster, Xinhua reported. China's Red Cross has dispatched 557 tents, 2,500 quilts and other aid to the disaster zone, Chinese television reported.

The state relief disaster commission declared a level-two emergency, the second-highest level out of four, to cope with the aftermath of the quake, Chinese television reported.

In Sichuan's Shifang city, the quake buried hundreds of people in two collapsed chemical plants, and more than 80 tons of ammonia leaked out, Xinhua said.

The local government evacuated 6,000 civilians from the area after homes and factories were also destroyed.The Chinese government said at least 8,600 people were dead, but that the death toll was sure to rise as authorities began to reach some of the worst-hit areas. Thousands more were believed to be injured.

Xinhua, the state-run news agency, reported that authorities were yet to reach Wenchuan County -- which sits at the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake with a population of about 112,000 -- because of damage to roads.

In Beichuan County, close to Wenchuan, the number of deaths was estimated at more than 3,000, with 80 percent of the buildings destroyed.


CNN

Train collision kills 66 in China

The death toll in a collision between two passenger trains rose to at least 66 in eastern China's Shandong province on Monday, according to China's official news agency.

More than 400 were injured, 70 of them in critical condition, Xinhua cited railway authorities as saying. Among them were four French citizens, according to Xinhua.

The wreck happened in the city of Zibo at 4:43 a.m., the report said. A train from Beijing bound for Qingdao derailed and crashed into a train traveling from Yantai to Xuzhou, Xinhua reported.
News photos showed carriages of one train lying on their side.

The accident disrupted traffic on the Jinan-Qingdao railway, Xinhua reported.
The head of the Ministry of Railways, Liu Zhijun, was headed to the site to oversee rescue efforts, The Associated Press cited the Web site of the Shandong government as saying.

In January, 18 people died when a train slammed into a group of about 100 workers carrying out track maintenance near the city of Anqiu in Shandong province, Xinhua reported.

Report: Fireworks blast kills 25 in China

BEIJING, China (AP) -- Firecrackers that had been trucked to the desert in northwest China to be destroyed have exploded as they were dumped into a ditch, killing 25 people and leaving five others missing.
China Central Television reported that nine people were injured by the blast Wednesday evening in the northwest region of Xinjiang, including two who were in critical condition.

The accident happened in the Gobi Desert outside the city of Turpan. Footage aired on CCTV showed a large patch of brown sand that had been burned black and several sport utility vehicles reduced to charred shells. One was flipped on its back.

CCTV said 904 boxes of firecrackers had been scheduled to be destroyed.

Source: CNN