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CHENGDU, China : Officials estimate more than 50,000 people died in the quake that measured 8.0 on the Richter scale, and the government has said it is bracing for a growing number of orphans.
Twelve-year-old Huang Siyu has a pink plastic flower in her hair, a pained look on her face, and two broken legs.
What is uncertain is whether she still has her parents.
There has been no word from them since Huang was rescued after two days under the rubble of her school in Yingxiu, the epicentre of the horrific earthquake that struck southwestern China's Sichuan province on May 12.
Exactly how many is not yet clear, but Li Yahui, media officer for the China programme of Save the Children UK, said she saw crowds of suspected orphans sheltered in a stadium during a visit Sunday to the hard-hit city of Mianyang.
"Today I saw a lot of children in the stadium and it is very obvious some of the children have lost their parents," Li told AFP.
At the Huaxi Hospital in the provincial capital Chengdu, the facility's spokesman Liao Zhilin said he did not know how many orphans had been treated at the city's biggest hospital, where many quake victims were transferred.
But there are many children, and clearly some of them are orphans.
Huang lies in the hospital bed in severe pain, a cartoon-style drawing of a dog stuck to the wall above her head.
Her injured legs -- the nature of the injuries was not immediately clear -- are hidden under a tent-like structure curving over her body while a hospital volunteer waves a fan and a nurse tends to her.
The only relative in her room is an uncle, who gave his surname as Li. He is 20 years old and distraught.
"She was at school and when the earthquake happened the building collapsed," said Li, who did not want Huang's photo taken but later approached AFP to quietly tell their story.
Hong Zheng, a cancer specialist temporarily seconded to the hospital's increasingly busy emergency ward, said some youngsters who were not badly hurt had been sent to the hospital anyway as their parents could not be found.
"They are not hurt themselves but they have no support. I believe for this kind of reason the rescue teams send them back here," said Hong.
Chinese Internet users have swamped online forums with offers to take in orphans of the earthquake as the government said it was drafting plans for adoptions.
Numerous overseas organisations have also been inquiring about quake orphans, according to state media.
The government is working out the practicalities and will allow adoptions by "qualified people," the official Xinhua news agency said.
It said orphans will, in the meantime, be cared for by local bureaus of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Those who accept the responsibility of caring for an orphan may find it a challenge complicated by the youngsters' mental conditions.
Orphans, along with other child survivors of the quake, are at risk of psychological trauma, said Li, of Save the Children.
"I think all of the children will have some kind of psychological problems," she said.
Save the Children has been assessing the situation in Mianyang and other areas and is studying the possibility of setting up children's centres, partly to address the psychological needs of young quake survivors, Li said.
Hong, the Huaxi Hospital doctor, agreed the orphans and other quake survivors would face psychological challenges.
"I think it's going to be really serious," he said.
- AFP /ls
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