Rescuers in China’s western Qinghai province has continued searching for hundreds of people still missing, as authorities confirm at least 617 people have died in yesterday’s earthquake.
Convoys of trucks containing supplies and tents are making their way to the mountainous region as survivors attempt to brave cold temperatures.
The number killed is expected to rise, as the freezing temperatures leave little hope for those survivors still trapped in the rubble of homes, schools and monasteries in Jiegu, known in Tibetan as Gyegu.
Tents have sprung up around a statue of a warrior on a horse in Gyegu, where 100,000 people live.
The sports stadium has been transformed into a makeshift hospital, but is proving inadequate for the number of people with broken bones and other injuries. Dozens of injured people line the streets outside the stadium waiting for medical help.
The 6.9 magnitude quake struck in the mountains that divide Qinghai province from the Tibet autonomous region. It is regularly shaken by earthquakes, but casualties are normally minimal because so few people live there.
Up to 10,000 people have been injured following the latest quake, almost 1,000 of them severely, according to the Xinhua news agency. But hundreds are still unaccounted for.
Rescue workers in buses and trucks filled with food and medicine struggled through the sleet, sandstorms and icey winds overnight, along the 620-mile motorway between Yushu and the Qinghai capital Xining.
Tibetan Buddhist monks used shovels to dig up the rubble as troops handed out rice and gruel to shaken survivors.
The monks have turned out in force to help rescue efforts, even though the town’s main Buddhist monastery lays in ruins on a nearby hill.
One monk said: “We were the first to help when the earthquake came. We monks are here to help the people just as much as the government”.
Some people are concerned that the rescue efforts by non-governmental organisations could be hampered by the on-going dispute between the Tibetan Buddhists and China’s ruling Communist Party.
One volunteer, Tashi, was trying to help transfer patients to outside hospitals. He said: “They say the army is helping us here but look, it’s all up to us.”
Exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, who was born in Qinghai, released a statement: “It is my hope that all possible assistance and relief work will reach these people. I am also exploring how I, too, can contribute to these efforts.”
This latest quake brings back sad memories for many Chinese of the devastating May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province. That quake killed as many as 80,000 people.
Volunteers and donors have traded information on Twitter about the two quakes.
In Sichaun the quake caused widespread collapse of school buildings while other structures remained standing. This caused anger and allegations of corruption, according to some of the messages.
In the Yushu quake, some 66 students and 10 teachers have been confirmed dead at three schools, according to Xinhua.
China’s president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jaibao have called for an all-out effort in the rescue attempt. Vice-premier Hui Liangyu has been sent to the Qinghai region to oversee the relief work.
China has declined an offer of help from neighbouring Japan.
There are concerns over a dam near Gyegu as cracks have appeared on the structure. Repair workers are desperately trying to stabilise the dam to prevent it from bursting and flooding the town.
Technology correspondent Benjamin Cohen
Now Google have launched a tool to help people find their family members and friends that may have fallen victim to the earthquake.
It marries up updates across Google News, YouTube and real-time search results from services like Twitter to search for individual’s names. It
also allows people to report information about an individual they have come across.
Social media blog Mashable says "the reason behind this dearth of content is quite obvious: Google and Chinafell out back in January due to privacy issues, and services like Twitter are currently blocked in the country."
While the battle between China and Google is a real issue, I’m not sure that’s the motivation for Google here. The company’s Crisis Response team springs into action whenever and wherever there is a major incident. "When a major disaster strikes, the Google Crisis Response team collects fresh high-resolution
imagery plus other event specific data, then publishes this information on a dedicated landing page," Google says in a press release about the service.
Its mission statement is to "develop, maintain, and optimize a worldwide, rapid-deployment protocol to speed the dissemination of situational information and increase the efficacy of rescue and humanitarian aid activities in response to quick-onset disasters."