China quake death toll rises to 69,186

Source: Xinhua | 06-27-2008 16:31

BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of China's major earthquake increased by one to 69,186 as of Friday noon, the State Council Information Office said.

The number of the injured stood at 374,174 and people reported missing also remained at 18,457 after the 8.0-magnitude quake jolted southwestern Sichuan Province and neighboring regions on May 12.

As of Friday noon, 96,316 injured people had been hospitalized and 84,438 have recovered and left hospital. There are still 9,242people remaining in hospital, the office said in a statement.

The relief workers had rescued and evacuated more than 1.47 million people in quake-hit areas as of Thursday.

The government disaster relief fund had reached 54.69 billion yuan (about 7.81 billion U.S. dollars), including 49.61 billion yuan from the central government and 5.08 billion yuan from the local budget.

As of Friday noon, domestic and foreign donations had reached 54.13 billion yuan in cash and goods, of which 19.16 billion yuan had been forwarded to the quake-hit areas.

As of Friday noon, about 1.58 million tents, 4.87 million quilts, 14.1 million garments, 1.47 million tons of fuel oil and 3.13 million coal had been sent to the quake-hit areas, it said.

As of Thursday, relief workers had built 355,400 temporary houses and another 25,900 were being installed, while the materials for 56,100 of such shelters had arrived in the affected areas.

In the 24 hours that ended Friday noon, 141 aftershocks were monitored in the quake zone. Among the tremors, one measured between 4.0 to 4.9 magnitude on the Richter scale and the others were at or below 3.9 magnitude, according to the China Earthquake Administration.

A total of 14,325 aftershocks had been detected since May 12.

Of the 48,275.5 km of water supply pipelines were damaged in the quake, 44,127.9 km had been repaired. Some 52,301 km out of the 53,295 km damaged roads had been restored, the office said.

Editor:Xiong Qu