The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Dujiangyan

Heavy storms and wrecked roads hampered efforts to reach areas hardest-hit by China's worst earthquake in three decades on Tuesday as the death toll rose to around 10,000.

State media reports indicated that the number of dead was likely to soar, with Xinhua news agency saying 10,000 people were buried in the Mianzhu area of Sichuan province and that troops had arrived for the first time at Wenchuan county, the epicenter of the quake.

A strong aftershock rocked Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, on Tuesday afternoon, one of more than 1,950 over the past day and keeping nervous residents on edge. "Office workers in downtown Chengdu took to the streets again after the quake," Xinhua said, adding it was thought to be the strongest since Monday's 7.9 magnitude tremor.

Premier Wen Jiabao, visiting Sichuan, ordered troops to clear roads to Wenchuan, a hilly area about 100 km (62 miles) from Chengdu.

Damage from Monday's quake left the area, about 1,600 km southwest of Beijing, completely cut off.

And rain and thick clouds over a province famous for its giant panda reserves meant that military helicopters dispatched to the area could not yet land. Parachutists belonging to the People's Liberation Army cancelled a rescue drop because of storms, Xinhua said.

State television showed highways buckled and caved in from the quake and massive rockslides lining the roads.

In Dujiangyan-about midway between Chengdu and the epicenter-there was devastation, with buildings reduced to rubble and bodies in the streets. Troops and ambulances thronged the streets, and military trucks able to do heavy lifting had arrived. But many residents simply stood beside their wrecked homes, cradling possessions in their arms. Others huddled in relief tents under heavy rain.

"At least 60 or 70 old people lived there, as well as children," said a hospital worker surnamed Huo, gesturing to a building in ruins. Mattresses and household objects could be seen poking through the rubble. "How could they survive that?" she asked.

Rescuers had worked frantically through the night, pulling bodies from homes, schools, factories and hospitals demolished by the quake, which rolled from Sichuan across much of China and was felt as far away as Bangkok and Hanoi.