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DUJIANGYAN, China: Nearly 15,000 people were killed and 41,000 victims buried under masses of rubble or missing after China's devastating earthquake, officials said on Wednesday as the full horror of the disaster began to emerge.
Rescue teams who punched into the quake's stricken epicentre reported whole towns all but wiped off the map, spurring frantic efforts to bring emergency relief to the survivors.
Planes and helicopters air-dropped supplies, 100 troops parachuted into a county that had been cut off, and rescuers in cities and towns across Sichuan province fought to pull the living and the dead from the debris.
But the overwhelming message that came back from this southwestern province now was a picture slowly showing the epic scale of Monday's 7.9-magnitude quake.
State media quoted Sichuan Vice Governor Li Chengyun saying that based on "incomplete" figures, 14,463 people were confirmed dead in the province as of mid-afternoon Wednesday. Nearly 26,000 were buried in rubble and nearly 15,000 missing, he added.
But far beyond the numbers is the human tragedy behind China's worst quake in a generation as rescue teams claw through twisted metal and concrete.
They were looking for people like He Xinghao, 15, whose lifeless body was eventually pulled from the debris of a school close to the epicentre.
Like many other Chinese of his age, strict population policies had made him an only child, and he was showered with affection by his family. "He was such a good and well-behaved boy. He always did his homework," said his aunt, Ge Mi, as fresh tears flowed from her reddened eyes.
It was a scene repeated across Sichuan - a province often better known to foreigners for its endangered giant pandas.
The destruction around the epicentre in remote Wenchuan county is massive, with whole mountainsides sheared off, highways ripped apart and building after building levelled.
Cries for help were heard from a flattened school in Yingxiu, where people tried to dig out survivors with their bare hands, state media said.
"The losses have been severe," Wang Yi, who heads an armed police unit sent into the epicentre zone, was quoted as saying by Sichuan Online news site. "Some towns basically have no houses left. They have all been razed to the ground."
At least 7,700 people died in Yingxiu alone, Xinhua quoted a local official as saying, with only 2,300 surviving.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said 100,000 military personnel and police had been mobilised. "Time is life," he urged rescuers.
The air drop started with planes and helicopters flying dozens of sorties, dropping tonnes of food and relief aid into the worst-hit zone, most of it cut off from the outside world by landslides and road closures.
In addition to Yingxiu, CCTV television said air drops were also made in nearby Mianyang, Mianzhu and Pengzhou, while helicopters flew to Wenchuan with food, drinks, tents, communications equipment and other supplies.
The rescue effort has been badly disrupted since Monday by heavy rain, and the Meteorological Authority forecast more later in the week, raising the risk of fresh landslides.
Many thousands of people are homeless, living and sleeping under makeshift plastic shacks propped up by wood and bamboo, and amid the grieving there was also some frustration at the overwhelmed relief effort.
World powers, including the United States, European Union and United Nations, have offered money and expertise. However, China has rebuffed offers to deploy foreign search and rescue experts, saying conditions were "not yet ripe".
A Japanese foreign ministry official in charge of emergency aid said Tokyo offered rescue teams with sniffer dogs, but China had made no request.
Australian and South Korean expertise was also politely declined, although China did accept one million dollars in aid from Seoul.
"We were told that China cannot receive rescuers now due to poor condition of transportation systems," a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
Wednesday's leg of the Olympic torch relay in eastern Jianxi province began with a minute's silence before the runners set off.
Organisers of the Beijing Olympics are scaling down the relay as the torch makes it way to the capital for the Games in August, in a further blow to its round-the-world journey after earlier protests over Tibet. - AFP/ac
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