More than 12,000 dead in China quake as rescuers struggle to reach injured

The death toll from the earthquake in China has risen above 12,000 in one province alone as rescuers today struggled to reach victims.

The official death toll across the whole of China had been put as 11,921. But the state-run Xinhua news agency reported that more than 12,000 people were killed in Sichuan alone. The death toll has been rising steadily throughout the day.

The disaster has left thousands more people trapped in the rubble of collapsed schools, factories, hospitals and homes.

Road, rail, air and phone links to the epicentre of the 7.9-magnitude quake were cut, hampering both relief efforts and the flow of information about the scale of the catastrophe.

Rain was impeding rescue efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a mission to the epicentre due to heavy storms, Xinhua reported. Some Chinese troops were marching up to 100 miles through the night to reach affected areas.

It is feared that the quake was China's deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing. At least 4,800 people remained buried in Mianzhu, 60 miles from the epicentre of the quake.

Chinese rescue workers reported that 3,629 people had been confirmed dead in Mianyang city, with 18,645 still buried under debris.

The Chinese ministry of health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the victims. "There is a large demand for blood in quake-hit areas, and we hope the public actively donate blood," said Mao Quan, a ministry spokesman.

Xinhua said up to 5,000 people were killed and 80% of buildings had collapsed in Beichuan, in a region of small cities and towns amid steep hills north of Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu. The government had sent more than 16,000 troops to the area, and tens of thousands more were on the way.

Just east of the epicentre, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county. The building, more than six storeys high, was reduced to a pile of rubble. The deaths were separate from those at another collapsed school, in Dujiangyan, where 900 students are feared dead.

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More than 12,000 dead in China quake as rescuers struggle to reach injured | World news | guardian.co.uk

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Me sef dey pray for Journey mercies

May God have mercy on us all. It seems Asia is more prone to these natural disasters.

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I am what I am.

Amen !!
I feel ashamed that I havent taken a moment to reflect on these horrible events in Burma and now China .... they are natural disasters and can occur anytime anywhere !

Mehnn, we had a thunderstorm yesterday and lightening struck the ground thrice and people's car alarms in the estate were going off, and the thunder was just terrible, I started saying my final prayers oh, thinking something terrible was happening..ordinary thunderstorm..so i cannot begin to imagine how terryfying a CYCLONE would be!!!!

The death tolls is unbelievable too!

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kikiss, sorry oo....Speaking of thunderstorms, I remember once back in the secondary school days, the Jehovah witness folks told us that the world was coming to an end the following Thursday and sent us all in a panic...unfortunately for us, that 'Thursday', it rained heavily and the thunderstorm was was nothing seen in Accra before....people were running helter-skelter all over the place as we seriously thought it was the end of the world....I think JJR actually banned the Jehovah witness from spreading their stuff for a while...later on, when we reminisced that day, it was hilarious but damn were we scared.

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Samira.................... I've never seen this type before oh..I was up at midnight watching American idols and then was on the internet, the rain started and I lost my cable signal..then the lights went off, before I had time to even get up and light candle or torch.......................

KABOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That set off car alarms then dogs howling before I knew it, lightning struck the ground outside thrice...I heard the rapport from the bolts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Needless to say i stayed in bed throughout!!!!!!!!!!!!I was so scarrrrrrrrrreddddddddd!We thank God, but you know Accra, the filth from the gutters all washed up on the street this morning...ewwwww!

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Nah so we see am oh!!!

A similar thunderstorm happened here in Ldn last week. It was during the daytime and strangely enough it didn't rain that day. Dis thunder was so loud. Thank God, i called in off-sick from work that day. I was sooo scared. Never heard anything like dat b4.

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It could happen to anyone
I pray the Lord comfort the families of those affected

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Me sef dey pray for Journey mercies

Myanmar State Television says the official cyclone death toll has climbed to more than 43,000.
The number of missing has remained at nearly28,000 for at least two days.
The UN and others estimate that well over 100,000 people may have died in the disaster.

-Culled from The Associated Press.

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China warned yesterday that the death toll from this week's earthquake could soar to 50,000 as the government issued a rare public appeal for rescue equipment as it struggled to cope with the disaster.
More than 72 hours after the quake rattled central China, rescuers appeared to shift from going through downed buildings for survivors to the grim duty of searching for bodies in Monday's tremor.
The official death toll reached at least 19,500 in Sichuan province alone where Monday's quake was centred, Vice Gov. Li Chengyun told a news conference in the provincial capital of Chengdu.

-Culled from The Association Press.

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