KEY POINTS:
The number of New Zealanders registered or reported as being in the affected Sichuan and Chongqing provinces had grown today to 42.
Authorities had today made contact with all but one of the New Zealanders known to have been in areas affected by Monday's massive earthquake in China.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) said 41 of those had been contacted and all were fine. The remaining person was not likely to be in the affected area.
The ministry has also been advised that another three may or may not be near where the 7.9 magnitude quake struck, and authorities would try and track them down.
"The New Zealand embassy in Beijing will continue to contact New Zealanders by telephone, but communications are still difficult," an Mfat spokeswoman said.
The national death toll from the quake has climbed past 13,000 and is likely to rise steeply after media said tens of thousands more were buried in rubble in the Mianyang area of Sichuan alone.
The quake shook homes, schools and hospitals to the ground and the Chinese Government has dispatched tens of thousands of troops to help with search, assistance and clean up efforts.
Aid agencies say rain has hampered rescue attempts and is making life difficult for survivors who have nowhere to go and are remaining outdoors in the wake of consistent aftershocks.
Chinese authorities said no foreign nationals had so far been identified as being among the casualties.
- NZPA
