China mourns earthquake victims

By Chris Buckley

BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - China began three days of national mourning on Monday for more than 30,000 victims of an earthquake that struck a week ago.

Public entertainment will be suspended, flags kept at half-mast and a three-minute silence observed to mark exactly a week since the quake, the government said.

The national flag in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing flew at half mast after a ceremony at dawn. The Olympic torch relay, currently on its domestic leg ahead of the August 8 opening in Beijing, will likewise be suspended for three days.

"I have come today with a heavy heart," said Liu Xianzeng, watching the ceremony in Tiananmen Square. "I feel for the victims of the earthquake and soldiers who are helping there."

Around the country air raid sirens and car, train and ship horns will also sound to "wail in grief" at 2:28 pm ET, the time the quake hit a week ago, the official Xinhua news agency said.

On the eve of the official mourning period, a fresh tremor in southwestern China killed three people, injured 1,000 and sent thousands fleeing their homes into the streets.

The tremor, one of the strongest aftershocks since the May 12 earthquake, hit Jiangyou city in Sichuan, Xinhua said.

It was 5.7 in magnitude and brought down a large number of houses, damaged 377 km (235 miles) of roads and six bridges, rescue authorities said late on Sunday.

The official death toll stands at nearly 32,500 from the original quake of 7.9 magnitude that rattled Sichuan province.

Some 220,000 people are reported injured and a further 9,500 are thought to be still buried under the rubble in Sichuan. Most are feared dead.

Officials have tried to keep people from the area because of aftershocks and a build-up of water in blocked rivers.

Xinhua said the most dangerous mass of water was only about 3 km upstream from Beichuan town where rescue workers saved a man on Sunday from under the remains of a hospital.

China says it expects the final death toll to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes.

SURVIVOR'S LEGS AMPUTATED

Late on Sunday, a woman was also pulled out of the rubble in Yingxiu after a 56-hour rescue operation during which her legs were amputated, Xinhua reported. A man was earlier found alive in a collapsed office building in Maoxian county, it said.