More troops rushed to help China quake rescue

By Ben Blanchard

CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese troops are set to join a frantic search for earthquake survivors on Wednesday, with prospects looking increasingly grim for thousands of people buried under rubble and mud.

Some 20,000 troops already searching in the southwest province of Sichuan, where Monday's 7.9-magnitude earthquake crumpled homes, schools and hospitals and cut off some of the worst-hit towns, will be doubled, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The national death toll from the quake has climbed past 13,000 and is likely to rise steeply after media said 19,000 people were buried in rubble in just one area of Sichuan.

A near overwrought Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was shown on state television using a bullhorn to urge on rescuers.

"At present the number one thing is still saving people," Wen told local officials, according to Xinhua. "All collapsed buildings must be fully checked. If there is a glimmer of hope, then put everything into rescuing."

But the depth of destruction in the towns and worst-hit mountainous areas suggests that the influx of troops is likely to find many more bodies than survivors among the toppled buildings, which have become grim vigil sites for desperate families.

In Beichuan County, at least 1,000 students and teachers were buried under a seven-storey school building, and rows of apartment blocks in the town collapsed. Locals told Xinhua that up to 8,000 residents may have died.

"People escaped from the buildings but were only devoured by the landslides," one survivor, Lei Xiaoying, told Xinhua. "There was no way to escape."