Fears of new quake prompt panic in Chinese town
CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of panickedresidents rushed into the streets of Chengdu in southwest Chinaovernight, alarmed by a television report that predictedanother powerful earthquake would hit the region.
Sichuan province called for calm as a fresh aftershock andrain forecasts compounded the difficulty for military,government and private workers trying to ensure food andhousing for millions of homeless.
Residents of Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, rushed out foropen space before midnight on Monday, alarmed by the predictionthat an earthquake would hit the region after last Monday's 7.9magnitude tremor which may have killed 50,000 people.
A few hours later, a 5-magnitude aftershock rattled windowsin Chengdu and likely caused more landslides on the roadsleading to Pingwu, the epicentre of the aftershock, wheredestroyed roads have hampered relief efforts.
Provincial television broadcast interviews with a seriesseismologic bureau officials to explain the prediction and calma jangled populace.
"Just because you can feel aftershocks, it doesn't meanthey will hurt you. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldstand in harm's way," said Han Weiding, researcher with thelocal seismological bureau.
The pandemonium showed how nerves have been stretched tothe breaking point by the May 12 earthquake and aftershockswhich have officially killed more than 34,000 people andinjured 245,000.
Cars jammed roads leading out of Chengdu on Tuesday. Therewas no report of damage to Pingwu, but Xinhua news agency saidon Monday that 200 rescue workers had been buried in landslidessince May 12.
The road to Pingwu from the Sichuan plain was still closedto heavy trucks on Monday, complicating efforts to get food,water and tents to tens of thousands of homeless living ininaccessible areas.
The number of dead from the May 12 quake, the worst to hitChina since 1976, is expected rise dramatically. The CommunistParty chief in Sichuan said on Monday nearly 30,000 people weremissing and a further 5,000 were believed buried under rubble.
Rescuers had reached the remotest areas of the province byMonday, but roads to some 50 affected towns and villages werestill blocked by rocks and mudslides.
Whole towns are flattened rubble in mountainous areas northand west of Chengdu, and about 4.8 million people are homeless.Housing and feeding during the long-term rebuilding effort willprove an ongoing challenge.
Sirens wailed and horns honked across China, from tentcities in Sichuan province to Beijing's Tiananmen Square, andmillions of Chinese stood for three minutes on Monday to mournthe dead exactly a week after the quake struck.
Foreign "entertainment" channels have been taken off theair out of respect.
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There was a burst of elation in ruined Beichuan when a61-year-old woman was found alive under a mass of concrete. Aman trapped in a manganese mine in Qingchuan was also pulledout alive on Monday -- just before the pit collapsed, Xinhuasaid.
But rescuers mostly have the gruesome job of recoveringdecomposing bodies. Dozens of bodies were pulled from therubble in Beichuan on Monday, and rescuers scattered lime andsplashed disinfectant to prevent disease.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry appealed to theinternational community to provide more tents for about 4.8million people who lost their homes in the quake. And thecentral bank reiterated calls to set up branches and lend tocompanies in ruined areas.
So far, 10.8 billion yuan (794 million pounds) has beenreceived from donors at home and abroad, China said.
($1=6.990 Yuan)
(Editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani)
(For more stories on China, click on Reuters AlertNethttp://www.alertnet.org. For full coverage of the quake inChina, click on www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/china)