The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Beichuan

Police tried to stop anguished relatives from streaming into one of the worst affected areas of China's massive earthquake on Sunday, as another strong aftershock hit the area and the death toll rose to nearly 32,500.

Hundreds of aftershocks have rattled Sichuan province following last Monday's devastating 7.9 magnitude quake, and officials are concerned the tremors could bring down more unstable buildings and rupture already leaky dams.

Six days after the main quake hit, the overall death toll stands at nearly 32,500, state news agency Xinhua reported, with a further 220,000 injured.

Early on Sunday, a 6.1 magnitude tremor caused thousands to flee swaying buildings in the provincial capital, Chengdu, some 200 km south of the new tremor's epicentre.

The official Xinhua news agency said there had been no reports of casualties, but more roads been seriously damaged.

But concerns over the safety of nuclear facilities, including China's chief nuclear weapons research lab, close to the affected zone were allayed. Xinhua reported that they were "all in a safe and controllable state".

In Beichuan, hard hit by the quake and which many people fled on Saturday following warnings a dam may collapse, worried relatives quarrelled with police who tried to prevent them entering the area, citing safety reasons.

"I've travelled all this way, and I don't know where my father is," said Chen Shiquan, who had come back from the neighbouring province of Qinghai where he works to look for this father, Chen Xiaoqu.

"To let me get this far and then not let me in is too cruel," he added.