China races to bury quake dead and manage survivors

MIANZHU, China (Reuters) - China struggled on Friday tobury the dead and offer relief to those left injured, homelessand without food and water by the earthquake that may havekilled more than 50,000 people.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called on officials to ensuresocial stability as frustration and exhaustion grew amongsurvivors, many who lost everything and are living in makeshifttents or in the open air.

In Mianzhu, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, thearea worst hit by Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake, Lin Changfu wasstaffing a tent collecting relief supplies.

"What we need most urgently is water, food and tents. Welack tents," he said.

From the heart of the disaster zone, Wen urged rescuers on,but hopes were fading for those still trapped under rubble.

"Saving lives is still our top priority as long as hope ofsurvival still exists," the official Xinhua news agency quotedWen as saying.

But some expressed frustration at the resources continuingto be devoted to finding survivors among the more than 25,000who remain buried. Officials said another 20,000 have died inthe quake.

"The focus is on saving lives, and they say food and aplace to live are small issues as long as you're alive," saidFan Xiaohua, who was organising volunteers at a reliefcoordination centre in Mianzhu.

"In fact, they are very big issues right now," she said.

President Hu Jintao headed to Sichuan on Friday to meetvictims and inspect the rescue and relief effort, Xinhua said.It will be his first trip to the region since the disasterstruck.

In Sichuan's Yingxiu, where bodies were lined up along theriver bank, a Communist Party official warned that epidemicscould break out if bodies were not soon buried or cremated.

"We are in urgent need of body bags," the official, BaiLicheng, told Xinhua.

"Air-dropped food and drinking water are limited and farfrom meeting the demand," he added.

The Ministry of Health issued a notice ordering bodies tobe cleaned where they were found and buried as soon aspossible, far from water sources and downwind from populatedareas.

More than 3,000 soldiers were searching for survivors inYingxiu, a township of about 6,600 people.

Bai said bodies were still trapped in the debris andblocked roads meant that heavy lifting gear could not getthrough.

China has mobilised 130,000 army and paramilitary troops tothe disaster area, but the quake buckled roads and triggeredmountain landslides, meaning that relief supplies and rescuershave struggled to reach the worst-hit areas.

STRUGGLING TO COPE

In the town of Shifang, a small hospital struggled to copewith injured patients, who were being treated in any spaceavailable -- including a under a covered car park at the backof the building and under tents on the pavement.

Doctors and nurses rushed around, checking dressings,changing saline drips and administering to the wounded.

"We've seen nobody come here from the government," said onewoman, tending to her injured son.

"They're trying to help, but they've been so busy," added ayoung man standing next to her. "In Mianzhu alone there'sthousands dead," he said, referring to the nearby area.

Hundreds of damaged dams have also raised fears of collapseor flooding that could inundate towns and cities that arealready struggling to recover from the quake.

China has asked the United States for satellite images tohelp locate victims and identify damaged infrastructure. InSichuan and neighbouring Chongqing, reservoirs have beendamaged, some dams have cracked or are leaking water, andofficials have warned the full extent of the hazard was as yetunclear.

China was also accepting foreign help to bolster rescueefforts in the disaster, the deadliest since more than 240,000people were killed in a 1976 earthquake in the northeasternChinese city of Tangshan.

The first foreign rescue team, a group of about 60 peoplefrom Japan, reached Sichuan on Friday. China has acceptedfurther offers of rescue teams from Russia, South Korea andSingapore, the Foreign Ministry said.

In the epicentre, Wenchuan, Chinese air forces succeededfor the first time on Thursday in dropping equipment, Xinhuasaid, citing military sources. Such airdrops had earlier beenstymied by heavy rain and cloud cover.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Shifang and EmmaGraham-Harrison in Yingxiu; Writing by Lindsay Beck; Editing byKen Wills and David Fox)