China Earthquake Death Toll Rises

The death toll in Saturday's earthquake in south-west China is now at least 32, with 467 injuries, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The 6.1 magnitude shock happened close to Panzhihua town in Sichuan province, near the border with Yunnan and along the same fault line as a May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000.

Rescuers appealed for temporary housing and tents. Their efforts were hampered by heavy rain. "We need temporary houses ... we need more than 10,000 tents," said Zhang Hai, head of the foreign liaison office of the Communist Party in Panzhihua city. "This is a mountainous place and so we can't build temporary houses everywhere."

The beginning of the school year, which was supposed to be today, was postponed for a week because authorities were inspecting damage in classrooms, he said.

More than 150,000 people had fled their homes, and state broadcaster CCTV showed evacuees including children and elderly people lying on plastic sheets in a school field in Panzhihua. Xinhua said major bridges had been damaged and three reservoirs were cracked.

The quake killed five people in Panzhihua and surrounding rural areas, and the death toll also included 25 victims in Sichuan province's Huili county, local officials said.

Authorities in the Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in neighboring Yunnan province reported six deaths.

"We are trying to maintain order and make sure that there's enough supply. The disaster relief office has sent 17 medical teams made up of over 200 people," said Song Ming, an official in Liangshan prefecture, which includes Huili county.