By Ben Blanchard
DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) - Heavy storms and wreckedroads hampered efforts to reach areas hardest-hit by China'sworst earthquake in three decades on Tuesday as the death tollrose to around 10,000.
State media reports indicated that the number of dead waslikely to soar, with Xinhua news agency saying 10,000 peoplewere buried in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan province and thattroops had arrived for the first time at Wenchuan county, theepicentre of the quake.
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 7.9 magnitude tremor.
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 dispatchedto the area could not yet land. Parachutists belonging to thePeople's Liberation Army cancelled a rescue drop because ofstorms, Xinhua said.
State television showed highways buckled and caved in fromthe quake and massive rockslides lining the roads.
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 very strong," said a Dujiangyan resident."We have put up tents outside 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
(0400 GMT).
"TIME IS LIFE"
China's benchmark stock index traded down after the quake,which forced suspension of trading in the shares of 66companies.
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.
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.
Death tolls in different areas are official estimates,given lack of access to worst-hit areas and inability to makeaccurate body counts under collapsed buildings.
In Gansu, the quake caused a train to derail, spillingpetrol tanks and sparking a fire, Xinhua reported. In Sichuan'sShifang, where the quake sparked a major leak of liquidammonia, about 600 people died and as many as 2,300 remainedburied, Xinhua said.
In Chengdu, most shops were shuttered and authorities wereevacuating hotels and big buildings.
(Writing by Lindsay Beck and Chris Buckley; Editing by NickMacfie)
