Quake mourners pile flowers in Sichuan's capital

A girl mourns her relatives who died during the earthquake, at a square in Chengdu, Sichuan province May 19, 2008. The banner on the ground reads in Chinese, ''Friends, have a smooth journey''.

CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - Mourners placed white funeral flowers on Tuesday in the main square of Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province, to commemorate the 70,000 people killed or missing after last week's earthquake.

Traditional Chinese flower arrangements leaned against a flagpole in Tianfu Square, where the flag was at half-mast as part of three days of national mourning.

Hundreds of bouquets of yellow or white flowers were piled around the flagpole, and citizens had covered bushes on the square with white paper flowers, tied on with black gauze. White is the traditional color of mourning in China.

Thousands of people later gathered on the square after dark, chanting "Go Sichuan! Go China," provincial television reported. It ran footage of masses of people chanting and crying.

Emotions are particularly raw in Chengdu, which is only an hour's drive from the rubble, death and tent cities of the disaster zone.

Predictions of a strong aftershock sent people into the streets to sleep for a second night on Tuesday.

A silent crowd had gathered earlier in the evening to sign a white banner expressing their condolences.

State television reported candlelight vigils by Chinese people in New York and Germany, and carried condolences delivered by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Chinese.

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)