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China Quake Toll May Reach 80,000

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The Associated Press

Published: May 25, 2008

YINGXIU, China - China warned Saturday the death toll from a massive earthquake two weeks ago could take a major leap and pass 80,000, suggesting the government may be giving up hope of finding more survivors.

But rescuers still rushed to reach 24 coal miners who officials said were trapped in three mines by the disaster. It was not known if the miners were alive.

"We have had the miracle in the past that a miner was found alive after being trapped underground for 21 days," Wang Dexue, the deputy chief of the government's work safety department, told a news conference in Beijing. "We are carrying out rescue work on the assumption that they are still alive. We absolutely will not give up."

Wang gave no further details of the trapped miners. China's mines are the world's deadliest, with explosions, cave-ins and floods killing nearly 3,800 people last year.

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a brief visit Saturday to one of the hardest-hit towns, Yingxiu. He took a helicopter ride that offered a rare bird's-eye view of the destruction wrought by the 7.9-magnitude quake on May 12.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, said Saturday that the latest confirmed death toll for the quake - China's biggest disaster in three decades - was 60,560, with 26,221 more people still missing.

Premier Wen Jiabao, on a return visit to the quake zone to accompany Ban, warned that the toll could go much higher.

"It may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more," Wen said as he stood amid the rubble in Yingxiu. The jump could occur as the number of missing are added to the number of dead.

Ban, who came to China directly from cyclone-stricken Myanmar, promised that the United Nations would help with reconstruction and that it was waiting for China's assessment of what was needed.

Underscoring doubts that more survivors would be found, Wen said the government's focus had shifted from rescue to rebuilding.

The quake destroyed more than 15 million homes, Wen said.

He said the government needed 900,000 tents and urged Chinese manufacturers to make 30,000 a day.

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