Survivors emerge as China quake rescue intensifies

Rescue workers carry a body away from a collapsed building in Beichuan, China. Photograph: Andy Wong/AP The motorcade swept down the mountain from the stricken town of Beichuan. Behind a darkened window was China's President, speeding past the flattened houses, rock falls and waiting survivors.

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President Hu Jintao has expressed his gratitude to the foreign countries and people who have offered aid since a major earthquake struck the country. "On behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council and the Central Military Commission, I express heartfelt thanks to the foreign governments and international friends that have contributed to our quake-relief work," Xinhua news agency quoted Mr Hu saying.

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Clifford Coonan reports from Sichuan province Sunday, 18 May 2008 An aftershock measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale shook Sichuan province last night, six days after China's worst earthquake in more than half a century killed at least 50,000 people in the mountainous region.

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Rescue workers returned to Beichuan county, near the epicentre of the quake, in Sichuan province, but many residents were too frightened to return, nervous about a lake formed after aftershocks triggered landslides blocking the flow of a river. "After briefly evacuating, rescue work returned to normal at Beichuan," an official Web site (www.china.com.cn) said, blaming the evacuation on a false alarm.

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As rescuers are still searching for survivors in rubbles in southwest China's quake-hit areas, authorities have also moved their eyes to temples and churches affected by the disaster. About 30 Buddhist monasteries, and Christian and Catholic churches in Pengzhou, Shifang, Mianyang and Ya'an in Sichuan Province have got relief goods such as packaged biscuits, instant noodles and bottled water since Monday's quake.

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Chinese province that is struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake...Quoting the China Earthquake Networks Centre, the official Xinhua news agency said the aftershock measured 6.0 on the Richter scale and was felt particularly in Sichuan province's Jiangyou City.

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China, rescuers pulled at least 63 people alive from collapsed buildings yesterday. Xinhua news agency said 57 survivors were rescued in Yingxiu township in Wenchuan County, the epicentre of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Sichuan province on Monday afternoon.

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Sichuan Province, May 17 (Xinhua) �C Rescuers have brought under control an ammonia gas leak in a meat processing factory in the quake-hit areas of southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to local sources. Cracks appeared on pipelines in the factory's cold store in Qingchuan County, Guangyuan City at around 6:00 p.m.

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Beijing's flexibility and openness amid a surge of individual initiative to respond in the quake crisis signals a new dynamic, the Los Angeles Times said on Saturday. "The China that emerged from the wreckage of Monday's magnitude7.9 earthquake in Sichuan province looked surprisingly modern, flexible and if not democratic, at least open," the paper said. "It has admitted foreign rescue experts into the disaster area and tolerated reporting by a more aggressive news media." "The

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Thousands of persons are being evacuated from around a lake and a river at risk of bursting in south-west China’s earthquake-affected zone, said relief officials on Saturday. The disaster relief headquarters in the Beichuan County said it received reports of water levels reaching danger point at the Laoyingyan section of the Qianjiang River on Saturday.

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