Rescue in Jiegu as focus turns to rebuilding

JIEGU - Rescuers yesterday pulled out a 4-year-old girl and a Tibetan woman alive from the rubble of an earthquake more than five days after they were trapped.

As search teams and other rescuers left the shattered town of Jiegu in remote western China, about 20km away rescuers dug out the pair who relatives said they had kept alive by sending them food and water through gaps in the rubble with the help of bamboo poles.

They had been trapped under a bed in a collapsed mud-built house.

Wujian Cuomao, 68, was in critical condition while the child was suffering from heart problems due to trauma.

In Jiegu, heavy construction machinery and trucks carrying aid to earthquake survivors clogged streets as the town turned to rebuilding.

But thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monks stayed in Jiegu, picking at rubble with shovels, performing funeral rites and throwing food from the backs of trucks.

Bedraggled survivors streamed from their tents and chased the trucks, the women scooping bread rolls and packets of noodles into the aprons of their traditional fur-lined robes.

Army trucks sprayed water on roads to reduce dust, and mobile toilets arrived - just as the spread of diseases was becoming a concern after more than five days without running water.

Classes resumed at Yushi No 3 Elementary School, with hundreds of students taking lessons in classrooms set up in tents after their classrooms collapsed on Wednesday.

The quake killed 1706 people and injured 12,128. The official Xinhua News Agency said at least 66 children and 10 teachers died, but that total was likely to climb as more were missing.

The surge in aid came as President Hu Jintao, who cut short an official trip to South America to deal with the disaster, arrived yesterday to inspect relief work at the remote Tibetan region where residents have frequently chafed under Chinese rule.

He visited displaced families living in tents and promised the Communist Party and the Government were doing everything they could.

Tibetan anger over political and religious restrictions and perceived economic exploitation by the majority Han Chinese have sometimes erupted in violence.

Government-issued blue tents dotted around town in recent days are now in abundance, with a racing track turned into a refugee camp.

- AP