Strong aftershocks continued to hit some of the worst affected areas of China's massive earthquake today, killing three people, as the death toll from last week's devastating earthquake reached 32,477.
More than 1,000 were injured today by an aftershock in the earthquake-devastated area of southwestern China, state news agency Xinhua reported. The 5.7 magnitude tremor shook Sichuan province six days after a massive tremor killed tens of thousands of people in the same area.
Xinhua reported that the aftershock had brought down a large number of houses,and damaged 377 km of roads and six bridges.
Hundreds of aftershocks have rattled Sichuan province following last Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake, and officials are concerned the tremors could bring down more unstable buildings and rupture already leaky dams.
Concerns over the safety of nuclear facilities, including China's chief nuclear weapons research lab, close to the affected zone were allayed. Xinhua reported that they were "all in a safe and controllable state".
China said today it would start three days of national mourning starting tomorrow.
In Beichuan, hard hit by the quake and which many people fled yesterday following warnings a dam may collapse, worried relatives quarrelled with police who tried to prevent them entering the area, citing safety reasons.
"I've travelled all this way, and I don't know where my father is," said Chen Shiquan, who had come back from the neighbouring province of Qinghai where he works to look for this father, Chen Xiaoqu. "To let me get this far and then not let me in is too cruel."
Thousands of people have fled the Beichuan area amid fears a lake could burst its banks, hampering rescue efforts after the deadliest earthquake in more than three decades.
At least three barrier lakes, formed after rocks blocked a river, had burst their banks but caused no casualties, Xinhua said. "There has been no bursting of reservoirs in the quake-hit areas," the report added.
Fu Xingyue, looking for his daughter who was supposed to turn 6 the day after the quake happened, brushed off safety concerns. "I don't think the dam is a big threat, and anyway, there's nothing I can do. I have to keep searching," said Fu, who has spent days desperately searching though rubble.
Rescue work has been complicated by bad weather, treacherous terrain and hundreds of aftershocks. But victims are still being pulled alive from the rubble.
In Yingxiu, close to the epicentre of Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake, at least 56 people were rescued over the past 24 hours, the official Xinhua news agency said today.
This morning, rescuers pulled a man out of a collapsed hospital in Beichuan, but had to amputate his legs first, Xinhua said.
An estimated 10,000 people or so are still trapped under the rubble, but most are believed dead.
Offers of help have flooded in and rescue teams with sniffer dogs and specialised equipment have arrived from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore. Donations from home and abroad have topped 6 billion yuan ($858 million).
A US team arrived in Chengdu today to join in relief efforts. However, Fujiya Koji, head of the Japanese rescue team in Sichuan, told Reuters that chances of finding more survivors were low.
"We haven't been able to find any survivors yet. Generally by this stage the likelihood of survival is low. They say they have been finding some in Beichuan and we'll certainly keep trying," he added.
Statistics from past earthquakes show survivors have been found up to nearly a fortnight after being trapped.
China has said it expects the final death toll from the earthquake to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes and the days are numbered in which survivors can be found.
Meanwhile, China is handing out praise to its soldiers for their quick response to the earthquake, seizing on a chance to improve the image of an institution badly tarred by the Tiananmen Square crackdown 19 years ago.
Military officials have emphasises the speed and scale of the army response to the massive quake and their success in rescuing tens of thousands from the rubble of shattered buildings.
More than 110,000 soldiers and paramilitary police have been operating in the disaster zone, helping to pull 21,566 people from the rubble and taking more than 200,000 to safety, Defence Ministry spokesman Hu Changming told a news conference.
China's military has increasingly been involved in disaster relief as part of efforts to change its image since the 1989 army crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.