Rescuers racing against time to save survivors in China quake

Tue, May 13 02:42 PM

Raghavendra Chengdu, May 13 (PTI) "I just pray my son is safe and sound. Who cares if the house is ruined", said Chen Hua, a wailing mother as rescuers struggled against time to recover her son from the debris where hundreds of other students remained trapped a day after the killer quake struck the western China.

Chen along with 2,000 students, parents and villagers waited on a campus overnight braving rain in Beichuan county, the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake that devastated her son's school and other buildings in the area. The country immersed in immense grief as the quake left leaving tens of thousands dead, missing or buried under the rubble of crushed buildings.

Rescue teams and troops struggled by air, land and water to reach worst hit areas of southwestern China that stricken by the quake that left a trail of devastation demolishing schools, factories and residential buildings. The death toll from the powerful quake climbed to nearly 10,000 and the figure is expected to rise dramatically with at least 10,000 people reported buried in Mianzhu city alone.

Wenchuan county located 100 km from the provincial capital of Chengdu still remained cut off, with roads blocked by rocks and mud slides, holding up rescue, medical and other disaster relief teams. China mobilised nearly 20,000 thousands of armed forces to lead the search and rescue effort, but attempts to reach the worst-hit areas were disrupted by rain and the sheer scale of the damage.

Television footage showed collapsed buildings, rubble littering streets and survivors fighting to free themselves from the debris, even as aftershocks continued to pummel the region. PTI.

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