Beijing: Exactly a week after the killer earthquake struck leaving over 32,500 people dead, China today came to a standstill to mourn the victims of the worst natural disaster in three decades as rescue workers raced against time to find possible survivors among thousands still trapped under the rubble.

As the Communist nation began a three-day mourning for the quake victims, the national flag at the Tiananmen Square here was lowered to half-mast after the soldiers performed the daily solemn flag-raising ceremony with over 2,600 people in attendance.

Across the country, tens of millions of people observed a three-minute silence and air sirens and horns of cars, trains and ships "wailed in grief" at 2.28 pm (11.58 am IST), the time when the quake unleashed massive destruction a week ago, with over 32,500 people officially confirmed dead so far and thousands more still buried under the rubble.

During the three-minute period, stock and commodities exchanges were temporarily closed, official Xinhua news agency said.

Olympic organisers have also announced that the ongoing Olympic torch relay had been halted for three days to honour the memory of those killed in "the terrible earthquake."

This is the first ever national mourning held for victims of natural disasters since the People's Republic was founded in 1949 and the most extensive ever since the last one in 1997 was ordered when China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, the architect of economic reforms that brought moderate prosperity to tens of millions of people, passed away.

Xinhua, meanwhile, said that more than 200 relief workers have been buried by mudslides over the last three days while repairing damaged roads in Sichuan province.

The Chinese State Council or the Cabinet has also suspended all public recreational activities during the mourning period.

Chinese believe that a deceased person's soul would wander in the first week after his death and on the seventh day, it would go home for one last minute time before leaving for heaven. It is a Chinese tradition that memorial ceremonies on the seventh day is especially important after a person's death as they are believed to help grant the dead person a better afterlife.

"It's really heartrending," a 58-year-old teacher Yu Huilin said speaking about the disaster after taking part in Tinanmen ceremony travelling from eastern Shandong province.

The magnitude of the quake that has affected millions was also revised from 7.8 to 8.0 yesterday with prospects of finding more survivors turning bleak.

Two women trapped beneath the rubble were pulled out alive today, Xinhua said. One of them, Wang Fazhen, a 50-year-old woman, was found in the rubble of the residential building of Tianchi Coal Mine, it said.

Even as the number of miracle rescues dwindled drastically since yesterday, China has vowed to continue the rescue operations as long as there was a "glimmer of hope."

President Hu Jintao, in the frontline now in the disaster zone rallying the soldiers and comforting the grief-stricken people, has asked rescuers to use "every available means" to reach to the survivors in villages.

"I know you lost family and property. I share the pain with you," he said. "We will try every effort to save your people once there is the slightest hope and possibility," Hu told a group of wailing women who surrounded him at a disaster-struck area.

Rains and aftershocks have also added to the misery of tens of thousands of people rendered homeless and already immersed in grief while creating further panic among them.

Landslides triggered by the earthquake and aftershocks have also blocked rivers and streams causing the water level to rise and anxiety among people living in areas downstream. Authorities have already evacuated thousands of people to safer places.

China has said all its nuclear facilities in the quake devastated areas in Sichuan province were "safe and secure".

"I could say in a responsible manner that all the nuclear facilities in affected areas are safe and secure," Major General Ma Jian, Deputy Chief of the Operations Department of the General Staff Headquarters, said yesterday.

Military facilities were "slightly affected" by the quake but there was no report of severe damage to them. "We have conducted a timely inspection of the facilities. Everything is in good shape and good order," he said.

China has said it has activated its contingency plans for nuclear and radiation pollution as a precautionary step in the earthquake-ravaged Sichuan province which has some key atomic sites and the country's chief nuclear weapons research lab.

Chinese Ministry of Health said no disease outbreaks or emergency public health incidents had been reported.

Source : PTI