China Earthquake: 50,000 May Have Died

China's government has given warning that 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that has devastated large areas of Sichuan province.

Thirty-three foreign nationals from Britain, France and the United States are rescued from one of the hardest-hit earthquake disaster areas, Wolong

So far, 19,509 people are known to have been killed – an increase of more than 4,000 on Wednesday's estimate of the disaster's human toll - and has directly affected 10 million people.

Survivors are still being pulled from the ruins of their homes and public buildings. A 22-year-old woman, covered in dust, was pulled to safety from the rubble in Dujiangyan.

But time is running out in the search for survivors from the earthquake, which struck on Monday.

"Generally speaking, anyone buried in an earthquake can survive without water and food for three days," said Gu Linsheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University's Emergency Management Research Centre. "After that, it's usually a miracle for anyone to survive."

Nineteen British tourists who were rescued from the Wolong panda reserve in Wenchuan, where they had been sheltering since the earthquake struck, said they feared being "buried alive".

Maureen Baker, from Romford, Essex, said the start of the earthquake sounded like a train approaching.

"Then I thought it can't be a train here, this is more, and I opened the door and all the floor was moving up and my husband was running towards me panic-stricken," Mrs Baker said. "Then we looked around and everybody was running and rocks were falling and then we looked up and the mountain just seemed to explode."

As boulders rolled down the mountain, the couple ran into the doorway of the panda enclosure, where Mr Atkins shielded his wife from danger. "We thought we were going to be buried alive. I really thought we were going to die."

She said it was difficult to sleep as they awaited rescue because of the possibility of after-shocks and fears that a nearby river might rise and flood the area.

Another traveller, Barry Jackson, said: "Suddenly we had this horrendous noise which was just ... you can't describe what it's like, it's just a huge, huge noise and the land shaking underneath you and the first thing that we all thought to do was to run."

The tourists said that the pandas appeared to become agitated just moments before the earthquake struck.

The group tried to drive back to their hotel but found it had been demolished. Instead, they stayed on their coach after taking duvets and other supplies salvaged from the village.

The Foreign Office said 14 members of the group were evacuated from the reserve to Chengdu by Chinese military helicopter. It had not yet been confirmed whether the remaining five, travelling with the Kuoni tour company, have been evacuated.

A rapid response team and a consular officials were in Chengdu on Thursday, trying to find those still unaccounted for, but the Foreign Offices said it was not known how many independent travellers were in the region when the earthquake struck.

So far, the full extent of the damage inflicted by the earthquake, which measured a magnitude of 7.9, has not been assessed.

The Disaster Relief Headquarters of China's State Council said the final death toll could exceed 50,000, according to reports on state television.

The authorities said that another 30,000 troops will be deployed in Sichuan to reinforce the 50,000 already helping the relief operation. Although the chances of finding survivors are diminishing by the hour, the government vowed to continue the search.

"This is only a beginning of this battle, and a long way lies ahead of us," said Gao Qiang, the deputy health minister. "We will never give up hope. For every thread of hope, our efforts will increase a hundred fold. We will never give up."

Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, visited the wreckage of school in Sichuan where dozens of children died.

He thanked doctors and nurses for helping the injured and said: "The party and the government are grateful to you. The people need you. They see you as a relative."

FYI:

Historic Earthquakes:

Haiyuan, Ningxia (Ning-hsia), China
1920 December 16 12:05 UTC
Magnitude 7.8

200,000 deaths.
Total destruction (XII - the maximum intensity on the Mercalli scale) in the Lijunbu-Haiyuan-Ganyanchi area. Over 73,000 people were killed in Haiyuan County. A landslide buried the village of Sujiahe in Xiji County. More than 30,000 people were killed in Guyuan County. Nearly all the houses collapsed in the cities of Longde and Huining. Damage (VI-X) occurred in 7 provinces and regions, including the major cities of Lanzhou, Taiyuan, Xi’an, Xining and Yinchuan. It was felt from the Yellow Sea to Qinghai (Tsinghai) Province and from Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia) south to central Sichuan (Szechwan) Province. About 200 km (125 mi) of surface faulting was seen from Lijunbu through Ganyanchi to Jingtai. There were large numbers of landslides and ground cracks throughout the epicentral area. Some rivers were dammed, others changed course. Seiches from this earthquake were observed in 2 lakes and 3 fjords in western Norway. Although usually called the Kansu (now Gansu) earthquake by Western sources, the epicenter and highest intensities are clearly within Ningxia Autonomous Region.

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