Rescuers save a middle school student buried under debris after an earthquake in Mianzhu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on May 13, 2008. Monday's earthquake has taken at least 2,000 lives in Mianzhu City, and more than 10,000 people were injured, local authorities told Tuesday.(Xinhua/He Junchang) Photo Gallery>>>

Quake death toll rises to 5,430 in Mianyang

    MIANYANG, Sichuan, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Death toll in the earthquake-stricken Mianyang City jumped from 3629 to 5,430 by 11:40 a.m. on Wednesday.

    Information from the quake control and relief efforts headquarter of Mianyang City said Monday's earthquake also left 1,396 people missing, 18,486 more buried in debris, and 23,235 others injured.

China's railways transport 14,000 soldiers to quake-hit area

    BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Railways (MOR) said on Wednesday that 14,000 soldiers had so far been transported by 25 military trains to the quake-stricken Sichuan Province.

    Trains carrying 416 carriages of disaster-relief materials including 55,935 tents, 283 carriages of fuel and 12 carriages of food, were en route to the province, said the ministry.

    Traffic on the lines interrupted by Monday's powerful southwest China earthquake had all resumed as of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, except on the Baoji-Chengdu railway.

    The Baoji-Chengdu railway was still cut by a landslide in a tunnel in Huixian County, Gansu Province, as well as some bridge displacements and damage to the line, said MOR spokesman Wang Yongping.

    More than 1,000 workers were repairing the damaged rail line, but it was unknown when traffic would resume, said the Xi'an Railway Bureau.

    The tunnel collapse caused a blaze on a 40-car freight train, which included 13 tankers full of gasoline, on Monday.

    The train was still burning on Tuesday, 25 hours after it derailed and caught fire. Local authorities said fire-fighters, who had moved six kilometers away from the site fearing the tankers could explode, had resumed efforts to extinguish the fire.

    A field team to oversee railway repairs has been set up to organize the repair work and coordinate rescue efforts, with Lu Chunfang, Vice Minister of Railways, as the head.

    The quake stranded 180 trains on lines leading to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, due to multiple landslides and collapses near Chengdu following the 7.8-magnitude quake.

    Wang said earlier that 787 passengers aboard train K291 from Shanghai to Chengdu on the Baoji-Chengdu railway had been transferred to 20 minibuses on Tuesday morning.