Struggle To House Quake Survivors

6:57pm UK, Tuesday May 20, 2008

Chinese authorities says they are struggling to provide shelter for many of the five million people left homeless by a massive earthquake.

Thousands still sleep outside

It comes after panic swept across south-west China with warnings that another powerful quake would hit the disaster-struck region.

Last week's 7.9-magnitude tremor may have killed 50,000 people.

The government said it was setting up temporary housing for survivors, but they were "in desperate need for tents".

Nearly 280,000 tents have been delivered to the area and 700,000 more ordered, with factories working triple shifts to meet demand.

"Despite generous donations, the disaster is so great that victims still face a challenge in finding living accommodations," vice minister of civil affairs Jiang Li said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who signed a book of condolences at the Chinese embassy, said Britain was planning to send tents for 30,000 people.

Just before midnight yesterday, an earthquake alert broadcast on television sent many running for open space in Chengdu, Sichuan province's capital.

A few hours later, a 5-magnitude aftershock rattled windows in the region.

Provincial television later broadcast interviews with a series of seismological bureau officials to explain the alert and calm a jangled populace.

But Sky News correspondent David Bowden, speaking from Chengdu, said thousands of people were spending a second night outside.

"It's very, very difficult to try and convey exactly how terrified people have become," he said.

The tremors have officially killed more than 40,000 people and injured 245,000.

China's government said 6,375 survivors had been rescued from quake debris, and another 360,159 had been relocated to safer ground.

State-run media said a woman was pulled out alive after eight days under rubble. Xinhua said she had survived by drinking rainwater.

The woman, aged in her 60s, was conscious when she was found in the city of Pengzhou in Sichuan province.

Earlier, 31-year-old man was rescued from the debris of a collapsed power plant after a 30-hour effort, in which the team fed him sweetened water through a straw.

But Sky News China correspondent Peter Sharp, speaking from the town of Beichuan, said the overall picture was one of despair, as rescue teams confronted the prospect of digging some 13,000 dead bodies out of the debris.

"We're reaching a point now when desperate search for the living in the ruins makes way for the recovery of the dead and helping the tens of thousands of survivors," he said.

"Some 1.4 million people are without homes. I drove up here earlier and their tents and makeshift homes stretch along the road for dozens and dozens of miles.

"This was once a lovely little town. That's gone now. It will remain in people's minds, but it won't exist as a place any more."