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 06 July 2008 21:42 BST

Lives still under threat in China

Saturday, 17 May 2008 09:30
Over 77,000 already dead in China
An unstable dam, aftershock and a river bursting its banks continued to threaten Chinese lives in the aftermath of Monday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

But Chinese aid workers and military in the Asian country's eastern Sichuan province continued to save lives, urged on by president Hu Jintao.

According to the state-run news agency Xinhua, the official death toll reached 28,881 by Saturday afternoon. A further 198,347 were recorded as injured.

There are fears the death toll will continue to rise amid a fresh disaster. In Beichuan the BBC reported thousands were fleeing to higher ground after a river burst its banks and a complete evacuation of the city took place.

Some survivors are still being pulled from the rubble. On Saturday a German tourists was discovered alive while, 117 hours after the quake, a 52-year-old man was found to have survived.

Mr Hu, visiting the region yesterday, said the government would do all it could to help the region recover from the disaster.

"We will make every effort to rescue stranded people, treat the injured and make proper arrangements for the victims, as well as helping you to rebuild your homes," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Beijing's response has attracted praise from international observers, in stark contrast to the criticism heaped on the Burmese junta for its reluctance to allow the distribution of foreign aid after Cyclone Nargis.

Dr Yiyi Lu, a research fellow at the China Policy, praised the "swift" response of the Chinese government. Speaking to BBC News, Dr Lu stated: "Chinese people are very pleased with the government's response this time.

"It was a very swift response and they mobilised vast resources."

Questions are being raised about whether more could have been done to prepare for the disaster, however.

The British Geological Survey has pointed out that research published in the Tectonics journal last summer identified the Sichuan basin as a place where "geological faults are sufficiently long to sustain a strong ground-shaking earthquake, making them potentially serious sources of regional seismic hazard".End of story


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