The death toll from China's earthquake continues to rise

Kean Wong: And begin today's broadcast with continuing coverage of the deadly earthquake in China. The latest reports say that at least ten thousand are dead. Here's the latest from Sichuan Province. State media reports says the number of dead is likely to soar. According to reports ten thousand people remained buried in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan Province. The quake's epicenter was in Wenchuan, a hilly area about 100 kilometers from the provincial capital Chengdu. The quake measured a staggering 7.9 on the Richter Scale. In Dujiangyan, located midway between Chengdu and the epicenter, there are scenes of devastation, with buildings reduced to rubble and bodies in the streets, some only partially covered. Many residents simply stood beside their wrecked homes, cradling possessions in their arms. Overnight, crews continued to pull bodies from homes, schools, factories and hospitals demolished by the quake. In the same city, about 900 teenagers were buried under a collapsed three-story school building. State television showed highways buckled and caved in from the quake and massive rock slides lining the roads. The U.S. Geological Survey upgraded the initial tremor to magnitude 7.9, followed by a series of aftershocks. Resident say the land continued to shake overnight. The Sichuan quake is the worst to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan tremor in northeastern China where up to 300,000 died.

YouTube | May 19, 2008