China quake Death toll unofficially tens of thousand
as devastating catastrophe in decades due to wide ridge area remain blocked with fallen rocks, boulders, conglomerates on raods.More than fifty thousand Armymen deployed for rescue operation.

Chinese premier right at the quake spot.

The figure is highly possible to rise as the casualties in the mountainous area is not available,” said Wang Bin, Communist Party secretary of Wenchuan County.

China”s eight affected provinces and municipality of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou, Hubei and Chongqing, the civil ministry said.More than tens of thousand people have died as the areas affected become unaccessible.

Chinese officials in the process of probes of casuality and damaged done by sunday hailstorm and Monday quake,the most devastating catastrophy in this decade ,puts the death toll to tens of thousand as per unofficial release.

Many araes have become un accessible,the aid is sent by helicopters ,transport planes but the rains and wild weather delays the rescue operations.More than 1600 army personnel have been deputed on the operation quake. The quake jolted Wenchuan County of Sichuan at 2:28 p.m. Monday, which also leveled some 500,000 dwelling rooms in the affected areas.

Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis expressed her condolences to the government and people of China for the victims of the major earthquake that struck the country on Monday.She said that the Greek government is willing to provide necessary support to China.She made the remarks on Monday evening in central Athens while inaugurating the exhibition "Beijing-Athens-Modern Chinese Art".

The European Union expressed sympathy to China on Monday over the heavy life and material losses in the devastating earthquake that hit southwest Sichuan Province of China. "We share the grief of all those who have lost loved ones and express our heartfelt sympathies to those who have been injured and suffered heavy material losses in this catastrophe," a statement from the rotating Slovenian EU presidency said

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has reached at the spot and has ordered to remove barriers, open up roads to epicenter before 12 p.m. Tuesday after a devastating quake needs emergent aids in southwest China"s Sichuan Province Monday afternoon. Wen in an emergency meeting at 7: a.m. Tuesday morning, said, 'We must try our best to open up roads to the epicentre and rescue people trapped in disaster hit areas. Wen stressed the military forces should try their best to open up roads to the epicenter and at the same time to air-drop commodities like food, pharmacy to the areas.

The Monday quake measuring 7.8-on rechter scale has killed 10000 peopleas per chinese official release,but the unofficial put the death toll to tens of thousand in eight affected provinces and municipality of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou, Hubei and Chongqing, the ministry said.

Central China"s Hubei Province, the hailstorms attacked 10 counties, affecting 515,000 people, collapsing 85 rooms of 33 households and damaging another 4,761 rooms as of 11 a.m. Monday. The direct economic loss was estimated at 385 million yuan (55 million U.S. dollars).

The worst hailstorms also lashed three counties of north China"s Hebei Province on Sunday, affecting 92,100 locals and resulting in a direct economic loss of 7.65 million yuan.

East China"s Jiangsu Province, 24,000 people also suffered from strong winds and hails Sunday evening. Four rooms were leveled and 60 others damaged with a direct economic loss of 1.46 million yuan as reported by Xinuha news.

Officials said 80 per cent of the buildings toppled in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, 146 kms from Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the killer quake.

Tens of thousand feared death in this natural catstrophe and the chinese cabinet rushed to the spot to get to the first hand report of loss of life and building."The casualty calculation is still going on", the agency said earlier, quoting the national headquarters for disaster relief.

Nearly 900 students were also feared buried after a high school building collapsed at Dujiangyan City, about 100 kms from the earthquakes epicenter of Wenchuan County in Sichuan province, Xinhua said. It gave no other immediate details.

'My fellow Chinese, facing such a severe disaster, we need calm, confidence, courage and efficient organisation", Jiabao said as he flew to affected area to oversee relief work.

China will also send 20 military planes to transport armed forces and armed police to the quake-hit areas, according to the military emergency response office on Tuesday. Sichuan health bureau dispatched 13 medical contingents of 40 people to Wenchuan county. The Ministry of Public Security issued a notice on Monday requiring local police authorities to put the protection of life and the maintenance of social order in disaster-affected areas as priorities.

'This is only rough number of casualties at the county seat. The figure is highly possible to rise as the casualties in the mountainous area is not available," said Wang Bin, Communist Party secretary of Wenchuan County, the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, Sichuan Province,in his release.

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Naresh Sagar
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