'Bodies piled up like a hill' as China quake death toll exceeds 600

RESCUE teams battled high winds and altitude sickness yesterday as survivors faced a second freezing night outside after earthquakes left more than 600 dead and 9,000 hurt in a mountainous area of western China.

Rescuers pulled survivors and more bodies from the pulverised remains of the town flattened by the quake, the largest of which was magnitude 6.9. About 15,000 houses have collapsed.

"We've seen too many bodies and now they're trying to deal with them. The bodies are piled up like a hill. It breaks your heart," said Dawa Cairen, a Tibetan working for the Christian group the Amity Foundation in rescue efforts. "You can see a lot of blood. It's flowing like a river."

Grim pictures emerged from several collapsed schools that were the focus of early rescue efforts. Footage on state television and photos posted online showed bodies laid out near the rubble, and the Xinhua News Agency quoted a local official as saying 66 children and ten teachers had died, mostly in three schools.

Last night Rokpa, a Scottish-founded charity with links to the area, launched an urgent appeal for aid. It has several projects in Yushu, the town at the centre of the earthquake.

Founder Akong Rinpoche said a Rokpa-supported school at Yushu, which had 250 pupils, had been destroyed. Two teachers were believed to have been killed, one girl was missing and two pupils had broken limbs.

Pupils had been sleeping in tents in the schoolyard in freezing conditions.

Akong Rinpoche, director of the Samye Ling Tibetan Centre, said: "There is another earthquake every few hours. How long it will go on nobody knows.

"More tents will be needed, as well as food and medical care for people left without homes. We will also need to raise funds to take care of children who have been left without parents."

As roads were cleared and the airport reopened, relief operations quickened yesterday with more than 10,000 soldiers, police, firefighters and medical workers now in Yushu county, where Jiegu is located, said Zou Ming, director of disaster relief with the ministry of civil affairs.

It appeared China was turning down offers of help from foreign rescue teams. He said the affected area was limited. "We have enough rescue teams," he said, adding the offers of help were appreciated.

Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Yushu yesterday to check on rescue work and meet survivors. He put off a foreign trip next week.

Meanwhile, President Hu Jintao, in Brazil after visiting Washington, cancelled stops in Venezuela and Peru to return to China.

The influx of rescue workers was taxing the scarce resources of remote Yushu, where the altitude averages 13,000 feet. Food, water, gas and other necessities were running low, said Pierre Deve, a programme director at the Yushu-based development organisation Snowland Service Group.

Mr Deve said he waited for hours in a line of about 100 cars at the only open petrol station. Most shops were shut, he said, and monasteries gave out food.

Mr Zou said tents, thick quilts, clothing and food were needed, but limited transport was slowing the delivery of aid.

Another problem was the altitude. Miao Chonggang, of the China Earthquake Administration, said: "Lots of our rescue workers are suffering from altitude sickness. The effectiveness of the sniffer dogs has also been affected."