BEIJING (Reuters) - More than 80,000 people are now confirmed dead or missing after China's worst earthquake in decades, the government said on Thursday.
Parents holding portraits of their dead children attend a memorial service at a primary school in earthquake-hit Wufu town in Sichuan province May 21, 2008. More than 80,000 people are now confirmed dead or missing after China's worst earthquake in decades, the government said on Thursday. (REUTERS/Jason Lee)
Previously, authorities had said they expected the final death toll to exceed 50,000.
State Council Information Office figures showed that the number of dead now exceeded 51,000, an increase of 10,000 on the previous day's toll. It said more than 29,000 were still missing.
The State Council (cabinet) added that more than 288,000 people had been injured by the 7.9 magnitude quake in southwest China on May 12.
Hundreds of aftershocks, heavy snow in mountains close to the epicentre and a forecast of more rain have compounded difficulties for military, government and private workers trying to deliver aid and provide shelter.
Some 5 million people were left homeless by the quake. In the countryside, where countless homes are too damaged or unsafe to live in, many farmers live in encampments of makeshift shelters.
China on Thursday raised the possibility that U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon might visit Sichuan, the southwestern province worst hit by the quake.
Ban took "a message of hope" to Myanmar's cyclone victims on Thursday and pressed the military government to allow large-scale international aid for the 2.4 million people left destitute.
"As to whether or not Ban Ki-moon will come to China, especially the disaster zone, after visiting Myanmar, China is currently still in talks with the United Nations about this," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference.
Where Myanmar's late response to the disaster has angered Western governments and aid donors, China's quick efforts have won worldwide praise.
"I think it is not an exaggeration to say that this is probably the most swift and effective response to a large-scale natural disaster in peacetime by any government in history," said Wenran Jiang, a political scientist at the University of Alberta.
The government again appealed to the international community to offer tents and materials to build temporary housing, saying that they needed more than 3 millions tents and that just 400,000 had so far reached the disaster zone.
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