TOI

Beijing, May 14: The full scale of Monday’s earthquake began to emerge even as rescuers managed to get to the epicentre of the quake and other uncovered areas in southwest Sichuan province. Official sources confirmed 12,000 deaths and said that 29,000 more people were buried in the debris of fallen buildings.

Officials painted a grim picture as they warned of serious aftershocks and “secondary disasters” that are likely to follow. Rescue workers whose operations had been hampered due to rains found no encouragement from the weather bureau predicting continues rains in the affected areas. Scores of aftershocks took place in the province on Tuesday further hampering rescue operations.

Mianyang city, about which very little was known till Monday night, seemed set to reveal a horror story. Government officials said that 3,629 people had already died and another 18,645 were buried under rubble. The situation has been made worse for survivors because of the disruption in the water and gas supplies.
An additional 10,000 people “remain buried”, in Mianzhu city, the official Xinhua news agency said quoting local officials. Mianzhu is 60 miles from the quake’s epicentre of Wenchuan. These revelations came only after rescue workers managed to reach Mianzhu this morning.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, who is personally supervising the relief operations right at the epicentre of the quake, has asked workers to do anything that is necessary to rescue lives. The government has already sent out 50,000 troops to work in the relief operations.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Disaster Response Director Wang Zhengyao said mountain boulders displaced by the quake and broken roads were proving to be the biggest challenge for rescue workers.

An advance squad of more than 30 People’s Liberation Army troops arrived at Wenchuan’s Yingxiu township and rescued 300 injured residents, Xinhua news agency said.

Only 2,000 were found alive in the town of 12,000, according to He Biao, a local official. “They could hear people under the debris calling for help, but no one could, because there were no professional rescue teams,” state television quoted He as saying. About 60,000 people were unaccounted for in Wenchuan. “What we most need is medicine. There is no medicine, there are no doctors and after such a long time, no food,” He said.

Thousands were reported to be buried under factories, schools and other buildings elsewhere. Hundreds more have died in neighbouring provinces.