China in mourning over earthquake
Monday, 19 May 2008 19:50
Rescue workers in Sichuan observe the national three-minute silence outside a clock that stopped the minute the earthquake hit
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China has begun three days of national mourning, a week after the devastating earthquake struck that killed more than 30,000 people.
A three-minute silence was observed nationwide at 14:28 local time (07:28 BST) today, exactly seven days after the quake hit Sichuan province.
All national flags will spend the next three days at half-mast, as will those in China's overseas embassies and diplomatic missions.
President Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao were among the country's senior leaders observing the silence earlier today, which was followed by air raid sirens and the horns of cars, trains and ships "[wailing] in grief", state news agency Xinhua said.
The May 12th earthquake, the epicentre of which was at Wenchuan, 90km from provincial capital Chengdu, has killed 32,476 people according to the latest government figures.
A further 220,000 people were injured by the quake, while hundreds of thousands of soldiers, police officers and relief workers remain on the ground sifting through rubble.
This morning, two women, including Wang Fazhen, 50, were rescued from a collapsed residential building in the Sichuan county of Beichuan, according to the Xinhua news agency.
On Sunday, a 53-year-old man was pulled out of the rubble in Yingxiu, near the epicentre, 148 hours after the earthquake hit.