Rescuers picked through the rubble of collapsed homes, schools and office towers, searching for survivors of a massive earthquake that has killed almost 12,000 people in China. -
But the death toll from Monday's quake could skyrocket, as an estimated 18,000 people remain buried under debris in the city of Mianyang in the hard-hit Sichuan province, Xinhua, the country's official news agency, reported.
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At least 3,629 have been found dead in the city of about five million, and it's unclear if these numbers are part of the death toll of 11,921 people, a toll compiled by the Chinese government.
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Xinhua said military search teams on Tuesday were only just reaching Wenchuan, the mountainous county in the southwestern province of Sichuan where the epicentre of the 7.9 magnitude earthquake was located.
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The county, with roads blocked by debris and washed out by heavy rain and landslides, was almost inaccessible, Xinhua said. One team of military paratroopers was forced to turn back because the journey was so treacherous.
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Wang Bin, a local government secretary in the area, said at least 57 people are known to be dead in the region and 300 injured, but the actual numbers are likely much higher.
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Overall, at least 10,000 people have been killed in Sichuan alone, although that number could easily rise as rescuers reach more devastated areas, Xinhua said. At least 300 people have been killed in other provinces and the city of Chongqing, a megacity with a population of more than 30 million.
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Areas affected by the earthquake were further devastated Tuesday afternoon, when a strong aftershock rocked the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, a city of about 11 million. Office workers and residents, already shaken by Monday's quake, ran into the streets in panic.
1,900 students feared dead in collapsed schools
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Meanwhile, media reports of tragedies kept arriving, including news that 1,000 students and teachers were killed or reported missing at a collapsed high school in the Sichuan county of Beichuan. The school, which was several storeys high and counted 2,000 students, was reduced to a two-metre pile of rubble, Xinhua said.
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Beichuan county, a mountainous region of small cities and towns, was considered to be particularly hard hit, with at least 5,000 dead and 80 per cent of buildings reduced to rubble.
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Another 900 students are feared dead in a collapsed school in Juyuan, a part of Sichuan's Dujiangyan city, where buildings were knocked down on every block and corpses lay in the streets.
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"My wife died in the quake and my house was destroyed," said Zhou Chun, a 70-year-old man who fled the city with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. "I am going to Chengdu, but I don't know where I will live."
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Survivors could be seen in the city pulling luggage and clutching bags of food through the rain, as ambulances raced by.
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"There is a large demand for blood in quake-hit areas and we hope the public actively donate," Mao Quan of China's Health Ministry said.
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Offers of help have poured in from the U.S., Japan and the European Union, among others. Even Taiwan, considered at odds with China, offered aid.
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In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier and Bev Oda, the international co-operation minister, said they are ready with humanitarian assistance when needed.
With files from the Associated Press