(China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-16 08:05

With the nation in shock from the steadily rising death toll, information from the epicenter of Wenchuan remains scarce, although a main road from Lixian county to Wenchuan was cleared last night.

Repair work starts on damaged roads in Wenchuan County on Thursday. The connection to the epicenter was finally re-established on Thursday night. [China Daily]

As People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops stream into the county by foot, boat and helicopter after local officials trekked in two days ago, reports of casualties are beginning to trickle out.

Wenchuan was home to more than 100,000 people before the Monday's earthquake. The 4,084-sq-km county has six large towns and seven smaller ones.

Aerial pictures of one town released by the Xinhua News Agency show most buildings are intact, some roads damaged and landslides scarring the surrounding hills.

Members of the People's Armed Police, the first to reach Wenchuan on Tuesday night, reported the scale of casualties and destruction was serious and that the county was in desperate need of medical supplies, food, water, quilts and tents.

"Eight towns including Yingxiu and Wolong suffered severe losses," Wang Yi, chief of staff of the armed police's 8,740-strong force in Wenchuan, told CCTV.

"In some towns, there isn't a single house standing. In the downtown area of the county, a third of the buildings have collapsed and the rest are seriously damaged. Villages in hills were razed to the ground."

In Yingxiu township alone, only 2,300 people out of the town's population of more than 10,000 survived the quake, and more than 1,000 of the survivors are severely injured, He Biao, deputy secretary-general of the Aba prefecture government, said.

Cries for help were heard from under the debris of a local school, but people had to dig with their hands until yesterday night, since blocked roads are preventing rescue teams and machinery from reaching the site.

"The situation in Yingxiu is even worse than earlier thought," an official on duty in the Aba government said.

Rescuers managed to trek into Yingxiu with great difficulty, often risking their lives, he said.

Rocks were still rolling down the mountains on Wednesday, and the highway linking Yingxiu township and Dujiangyan city is in ruins, blocking rescuers.

The official said he managed to contact the vice-governors at 7 am on Wednesday but the phone went dead as they were speaking.

In a nearby town, Shuimo, with some 20,000 people, roads and bridges have been severely damaged, and the rescue teams have not been able to reach it.

Shuimo is also in dire need of food, medicine and water, local officials said.