Chinese Earthquake Toll May Soar to 50,000

The death toll from China's earthquake could soar to 50,000 people, state television said today.

CCTV reported the government figure on its evening news. The Xinhua state news agency said the estimated toll came from the headquarters of the relief operation.

The Sichuan vice-governor, Li Chengyun, had earlier told a news conference in the provincial capital of Chengdu that the official death toll had reached at least 19,500 in Sichuan province alone.

But the number of casualties is expected to soar. More than 30,000 people were reported to be missing in Shifang, Sichuan province.

Meanwhile, authorities issued a new flood warning over damaged dams. Yesterday thousands of troops fought to plug "extremely dangerous" cracks in Zipingpu hydro power dam upstream of the city of Dujiangyan, with a population of 500,000.

Today the water resources ministry said the dam was structurally stable but many other reservoirs and hydro power plants were significantly damaged.

The water resources minister, Chen Lei, warned of "secondary disasters" if the damage was not repaired. He told Xinhua that residents may need to be evacuated from areas downstream of some dams.

Xinhua said the disaster has affected 10 million people in Sichuan alone.

Among the dead were 50 foreign tourists traveling in Jiuzhaigo. The victims, whose nationalities have not been revealed, included 35 whose coach had been buried by a landslide.

Rescuers removed debris from major roads to the epicentre that had been cut off since Monday's 7.9-magnitude earthquake, allowing them to move heavy equipment to the worst-affected areas.

But three towns in the mountainous area north of Chengdu were still cut off, with 20,000 residents trapped in Qingping, Jinhua and Tianchi. A team of 500 soldiers carrying medicine and food were attempting to reach the towns again today.

The ministry of information and industry publicly appealed for donations of rescue equipment including hammers, shovels, demolition tools and rubber boats. The plea on the ministry's website said 100 cranes were needed.

After refusing entry for foreign relief workers, China has accepted an offer from Japan to send a rescue team, a foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said.

As the rescue effort gathered momentum, tens of thousands of homeless people have stretched government resources.

In Deyang, north of Chengdu, the largest town near the devastated areas of Hanwang and Mianyang, thousands of people have arrived at the city hospital, mostly with head or bone injuries.

"Our doctors have worked continuously and people keep coming in. We have to keep strengthening our measures to keep up," said Luo Mingxuan, the communist party secretary of the hospital.

Yesterday, the British ambassador to China, Sir William Ehrman, arrived in Chengdu to help coordinate the search for missing British nationals.

It is not known how many independent travelers were in the region when the earthquake struck.

Xinhua reported that more than 10,000 tourists were stranded in the Aba prefecture of Sichuan, including about 2,900 in Jiuzhaigou and 7,058 in Songpan county.