China warned the death toll could soar to some 50,000, while the government issued a rare public appeal Thursday for rescue equipment as it struggled to cope with the earthquake.

China people burst into tears - 15 / 05 / 2008 13:41

 Rescue workers broke through key roads to the epicenter in the race to find survivors.

More than 72 hours after the quake rattled central China, rescuers appeared to shift from poring through downed buildings for survivors to the grim duty of searching for bodies — with 10 million directly affected by Monday's temblor.

The official death toll reached at least 19,500 in Sichuan province alone where Monday's quake was centered, vice governor Li Chengyun told a news conference in the provincial capital of Chengdu. The figure was up from nearly 15,000 confirmed dead the day before.

But the State Council, the country's Cabinet, said the number could rise to some 50,000, state TV reported.

In Luoshui town — on the road to an industrial zone in Shifang city where two chemical plants collapsed, burying hundreds of people — troops used a mechanical shovel to dig a pit on a hilltop to bury the dead. Two bodies wrapped in white sheets lie near the pit.

Police and militia in Dujiangyan pulverized rubble with cranes and backhoes while crews used shovels to pick around larger pieces of debris. On one sidestreet, about a dozen bodies were laid on a sidewalk, while incense sticks placed in a pile of sand sent smoke into the air as a tribute and to dull the stench of death.

A boat, ferrying earthquake victims from areas inaccessible by road, arrives at the Zipingpu Dam near Dujiangyan, southwestern China's Sichuan province, Thursday, May 15, 2008.

The bodies were later lifted onto a flatbed truck, joining some half-dozen corpses. Ambulances sped past, sirens wailing, filled with survivors. Workers asked those left homeless to sign up for temporary housing, although it was unclear where they would live.

Some key roads to other towns in the worst affected areas were cleared Thursday, and rescue workers were able to begin moving heavy equipment in for the first time. Previously, soldiers riding to isolated mountain villages on helicopters and small boats had been forced to dig for survivors with their hands.

Plans for the Defense Ministry to deploy 101 more helicopters underscored worries that the death toll would continue to skyrocket as time runs out to find survivors. Nearly 26,000 people remained buried in collapsed buildings.

An injured survivor is seen at a temporary clinic in earthquake-hit Mianzhu, Sichuan province, May 15, 2008

Reuters