By Emma Graham-Harrison
DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) - The death toll from China'sdeadliest earthquake in decades climbed to nearly 15,000 onWednesday, as officials warned of calamities downstream frombroken rivers and dams strained to bursting point.
Tens of thousands of troops, firefighters and civiliansraced to save more than 25,000 people buried across a wideswathe of southwest Sichuan province under collapsed schools,factories and hospitals after Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake.
Many schoolchildren were buried as they were taking anafternoon nap. One body of a boy was found still clutching apen.
The official death toll climbed to 14,866, as rescuerspulled at tangled chunks of buildings for signs of life.
The government sent 50,000 troops to dig for victims. Aparamilitary officer who arrived at Wenchuan, at the epicentre,told Sichuan TV a third of houses there had been destroyed andmore than 90 percent damaged.
Amid the overwhelming gloom, there were also moments ofjoy.
In Mianzhu, where thousands have already been confirmeddead, about 500 people were pulled out alive from crushedbuildings.
Rescuers in Hanwang, a village in Mianzhu, sustained a girlwith food and water as they struggled to free her from theruins of a school.
A woman eight-months pregnant and her mother, trapped underan apartment building in Dujiangyan, were freed byfirefighters.
"We are very happy. We have been standing here shouting fortwo days," said Pan Jianjun, a relative. "But there are stillthree more people in there making sounds."
But television showed whole villages wiped out across thepoor, mountainous region suggesting searchers would find manymore bodies than survivors among the toppled buildings.
BLOCKED RIVERS, DAMAGED DAMS
Officials have also warned of dangers from increased strainon local dams as well as mudslides on brittle hillsides whererain has been forecast over the next few days.
Two hydropower stations in Maoxian county, where 7,000residents and tourists remain stranded near the epicentre, were"seriously damaged". Authorities warned that dams could burst.
Landslides had blocked the flow of two rivers in northernQingchuan county, forming a huge lake in a region where 1,000have already died and 700 are buried, Xinhua said.
"The rising water could cause the mountains to collapse. Wedesperately need geological experts to carry out tests and fixa rescue plan," Xinhua quoted Li Hao, the county's CommunistParty chief, as saying.
The quake had also stopped a river in the stricken Mianzhuregion, prompting officials to evacuate residents and draindams, downstream, the agency said.
Underscoring the urgency of relief efforts, the CommunistParty's top discipline watchdog vowed to punish officials forany dereliction of duty.
Pictures from Beichuan, which rescuers have struggled toreach, showed near total devastation. Survivors lay alongsidethe dead in the open air, surrounded by rubble as state TVshowed dramatic footage of soldiers parachuting in to help.
PREMIER'S APPEAL
Premier Wen Jiabao made emotional appeals to workers andcomfort orphaned children.
"Your pain is our pain," he said, standing amid a clusterof residents, some of whom wiped away tears. "Saving people'slives is the most important task."
The quake, the worst to hit China since 1976 when up to300,000 died, has drowned out upbeat government propagandathree months ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.
It has also muffled criticism from abroad over recentunrest in Tibet, with images of the human tragedy and heroicrescue efforts spurring offers of aid and an outpouring ofsympathy.
The Party's swift action to mobilise a massive rescue forcehas made a jarring comparison with that of Myanmar, whosegovernment's slow response to a devastating cyclone hasinfuriated aid and rights groups.
China's stock market initially weakened after the quake,partly on fears it could add to inflation that is already at a12-year high, but the Shanghai stock index ended 2.7 percenthigher as fears of the long-term impact ebbed.
Industrial production growth showed China's busy factoriesmoving down a gear and economists said output growth could fadein coming months, partly due to the impact of the Sichuanquake.
Leading disaster modelling firm AIR Worldwide said the costof the quake was likely to exceed $20 billion (10.3 billionpounds).
(Writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard inMianyang, John Ruwitch in Hanwang, and Lindsay Beck, ChrisBuckley, Guo Shipeng and Ian Ransom in Beijing; Editing by NickMacfie)