Storms hamper rescue as China quake toll nears 12,000

DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) - The death toll from China'smost devastating earthquake in three decades has jumped to atleast 11,921, a top disaster official said on Tuesday, asstorms hampered rescuers in the most devastated areas.

State media reports indicated that the number of dead fromthe 7.9 magnitude quake was likely to soar.

Xinhua news agency said 10,000 people were buried in theMianzhu area of south-western Sichuan province alone. Troopshad also arrived for the first time at Wenchuan county, theepicentre of the quake.

"The death toll from this disaster has already reached11,921," Wang Zhenyao, disaster relief chief under the Ministryof Civil Affairs, told reporters.

"The first priority is to save people... As long as thereis the slightest hope, we will try to save them," Wang said,adding that the biggest threat to life was now mudslides.

It was not immediately clear whether Wang's toll wasconfined to Sichuan province. Hundreds more have perished inneighbouring provinces.

A strong aftershock rocked Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, onTuesday afternoon, one of more than 1,950 over the past day andkeeping nervous residents on edge.

"Office workers in downtown Chengdu took to the streetsagain after the quake," Xinhua said, adding it was thought tobe the strongest since Monday's tremor.

An official from China's seismological bureau official saidmore strong aftershocks could still hit Sichuan, Xinhua said,as hotels in Chengdu told guests to stay on lower floors.

Heavy storms and wrecked roads hampered efforts to reachareas hardest-hit by China's worst earthquake in three decadeson Tuesday.

Premier Wen Jiabao, visiting Sichuan, ordered troops toclear roads to Wenchuan, a hilly area about 100 km (62 miles)from Chengdu.

Damage from Monday's quake left the area, about 1,600 kmsouthwest of Beijing, completely cut off.

And rain and thick clouds over a province famous for itsgiant panda reserves meant that military helicopters sent tothe area could not yet land.

State television showed highways buckled and caved in fromthe quake and massive rockslides lining the roads.

BODIES IN STREETS

In Dujiangyan -- about midway between Chengdu and theepicentre -- there was devastation, with buildings reduced torubble and bodies in the streets.

Troops and ambulances thronged the streets, and militarytrucks able to do heavy lifting had arrived. But many residentssimply stood beside their wrecked homes, cradling possessionsin their arms. Others huddled in relief tents under heavy rain.

"At least 60 or 70 old people lived there, as well aschildren," said a hospital worker surnamed Huo, gesturing to abuilding in ruins. Mattresses and household objects could beseen poking through the rubble.

"How could they survive that?" she asked.

Rescuers had worked frantically through the night, pullingbodies from homes, schools, factories and hospitals demolishedby the quake, which rolled from Sichuan across much of Chinaand was felt as far away as Bangkok and Hanoi.

In Dujiangyan, about 900 teenagers were buried under acollapsed three-storey school building. Premier Wen bowed threetimes in grief before some of the first 50 bodies pulled out,Xinhua reported.

"Not one minute can be wasted," said Wen, a trainedgeologist. "One minute, one second could mean a child's life."

Frantic relatives tried to push past a line of soldierssurrounding the school, desperate for news of their children.

"We're still pulling out people alive, but many, many havedied," said one medical worker.

At a second school in Dujiangyan, fewer than 100 of 420students survived, Xinhua reported.

The initial tremor was followed by a series of aftershocks,which shook the area through the night. "Some are still verystrong," said a Dujiangyan resident. "We have put up tentsoutside to sleep in."

A group of about 15 British tourists were out of reach nearthe epicentre, likely in Wolong a panda reserve whose phonelines were cut by the quake, Xinhua reported. China said thatthere had been no reports of foreign casualties as of midday (5a.m. British time).

"TIME IS LIFE"

China's benchmark stock index ended down on Tuesday andtrading in the shares of 66 companies was suspended.

However, analysts said they did not expect a major economicimpact from the disaster, though it could mean supply shortagesthat fuel inflation, already at a near 12-year high.

China's largest life insurer, China Life, said it expectsclaims for the quake to far exceed those for freak snowstormsthat hit the country early this year.

China's Communist Party leadership announced that copingwith the quake's aftermath and ensuring that it did notthreaten social stability were the government's priorities.

But bloggers wondered about the quality of construction andwhy so many school buildings were reduced to rubble.

Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, accused by Beijingof involvement in deadly riots in the Tibetan capital in March,expressed his concern and offered his condolences to quakevictims.

The United Nations said it was ready to support China inits efforts to respond to the disaster, a spokesman for U.N.Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said.

China on Tuesday welcomed offers of international aid andsaid it was moved by the show of support.

The Sichuan quake was the worst to hit China since the 1976Tangshan tremor in north-eastern China where up to 300,000died. Then, unlike now, the Communist Party kept a tight lid oninformation about the extent of the disaster.

Neighbouring areas of Sichuan were also affected, with 213reported dead in the north-western province of Gansu, 92 inShaanxi province and school collapses in the municipality ofChongqing.

(Writing by Lindsay Beck and Ian Ransom; Editing by NickMacfie and David Fogarty)