Sichuan mourns earthquake victims as death toll rises and rain hampers search and rescue
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The death toll from the 6.8-magnitude quake has risen to 93 – 55 in Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture and 38 in the city of Yaan – with 25 people still missing on Sunday evening, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
At 12.52pm on Monday – exactly a week after the main quake hit Sichuan – mourning services were held concurrently in Luding county in Garze and Shimian county in Yaan.
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Members of the public were encouraged to stand for three minutes, as air raid sirens wailed and the horns of vehicles were sounded in memory of those who died.
Later, hundreds of government officials, officers from the People’s Liberation Army and armed police, public security police, firefighters, medical staff, volunteers and citizen representatives presented flowers to commemorate victims, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Sichuan Communist Party secretary Wang Xiaohui and commander of Western Theatre Command Wang Haijiang attended the ceremony in Luding, while Sichuan governor Huang Qiang was present at the service in Shimian.
The search for survivors is still under way and rescuers are patrolling, repairing roads, restoring communications and reconnecting power lines in the affected areas. The province has sent nine helicopters – including five to Yaan – to aid the rescue effort, according to state media on Monday.
But efforts to search for and recover bodies have been hampered by heavy rain and the threat of landslides, conditions that have also forced some residents to move to temporary shelters, according to CCTV.