China Says More than 50,000 Feared Dead from Quake
By VOA News 15-May-2008
Rescue workers atop a collapsed building
China says more than 50-thousand people are feared dead from Monday's quake in Sichuan province alone.
Soldiers and civilian volunteers Thursday continued to pull survivors from the debris, but time is running out to rescue an estimated 30-thousand people buried beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.
As the official death toll for Sichuan and nearby provinces rises to nearly 20-thousand, Chinese state-run media on Friday say officials worry that rotting corpses could spark disease outbreaks.
The first foreign rescue team arrived early Friday in Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu, from Japan. China also agreed today to accept teams from Russia, Singapore and South Korea. Planes carrying aid and volunteers landed in China on Thursday from Taiwan, which China considers to be a renegade province.
Washington Barta
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