Quake rescue in crucial phase: Hu

MIANYANG: Chinese President Hu Jintao flew on Friday into one of the areas worst hit by this week's earthquake, vowing no let-up in rescue work from the country's worst disaster in a generation.



Hu, who is commander of the People's Liberation Army which has spearheaded relief efforts, was paying his first visit to the zone ravaged by Monday's 7.9-magnitude earthquake, which officials estimate has killed 50,000 people.



"Quake relief work has entered into the most crucial phase," Hu said as he flew into the badly hit city of Mianyang.



"We must make every effort, race against time and overcome all difficulties to achieve the final victory of the relief efforts," the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.



State television showed China's leader, in a suit but no necktie, poring over maps showing relief work as he flew into the disaster zone.



He was greeted at the airport by Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in the quake zone since Monday and has been portrayed by state media as intimately involved in directing disaster relief operations.



More than 8,000 people have died in Mianyang city alone. Hu later set off for Beichuan, an even more devastated area.



Hu said that while saving lives was still the top priority, efforts should also be made to treat the injured and restore the area's infrastructure.



"The challenge is still severe, the task is still arduous and the time is pressing," Hu said.



Earlier Friday, Xinhua quoted Wen as saying the quake was the biggest natural disaster since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.



He said that the strength and scope of the quake was even greater than that which levelled the northern city of Tangshan in 1976. That disaster claimed about 240,000 lives.



Although the toll from the Sichuan quake is not that high, the epic scale of it is becoming clearer -- and the number of dead is rising -- as teams move into the remote epicentre in the mountains.



"It is still within the critical period for saving lives and we won't give up if there is even the slightest hope of finding more survivors," Wen said, according to Xinhua.



China has mounted a massive effort spearheaded by the military to reach devastated communities isolated by quake damage.



Xinhua quoted both Hu and Wen as describing the official relief work as "orderly, forceful and effective."

&

Subscribe to Alerts