Beijing: China today deployed more air and manpower to speed up the rescue efforts in earthquake-battered southwestern areas as more than 27,000 people remain buried under rubble or missing after the worst natural disaster to hit the country in three decades.

China's Defence Ministry said 71 more military choppers and 30 civil helicopters are being sent to the disaster zone while the army is planning large-scale air-dropping of relief material, official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Premier Wen Jiabao ordered 30,000 additional troops to join the rescue operation.

Soldiers were also rushed to shore up a two-year-old dam in worst-hit Sichuan province which developed several cracks in the quake, threatening to wash away people downstream. Officials later said the dam was safe, reports said.

The Ministry of Water Resources issued a notice to check reservoirs nationwide, while the economic planning agency said nearly 400 dams, most of them small, were damaged.

In Beichuan county, a swelling river, blocked by a landslide, was threatening to swamp rescue teams. The teams along with residents were evacuated to higher ground amid fears that the river could burst.

The state media reported that other than the confirmed toll of nearly 15,000, about 26,000 people remained trapped under collapsed buildings from Monday s magnitude 7.8 earthquake. Some 1,400 more are missing.

Forty-four counties and districts in Sichuan were severely affected by the quake. About half of the 20 million people living in these areas were directly affected by the quake, Xinhua said.
Source : PTI