CHINA:A MAGNITUDE 5.8 aftershock rattled the earthquake zone in southwest China yesterday, compounding the misery for traumatised survivors in the region and causing even more damage.
According to reports, at least one person was killed, 400 were injured and 70,000 houses were toppled by the tremor in Qingchuan, an area which had already been evacuated following the quake a fortnight ago because of cracks in cliffs near the town.
Hundreds of aftershocks have rattled the area since the 7.9 magnitude quake on May 12th and the death toll continues to climb. Premier Wen Jiabao said the overall death toll could exceed 80,000 and that the focus now was on secondary disasters such as flooding and landslides, epidemics and providing shelter for the five million left homeless by the catastrophe.
The water ministry said 69 dams in Sichuan were in danger of collapse, among 320 damaged in the quake. Troops carrying large quantities of explosive were travelling through the earthquake zone trying to ease some of the pressure on the dams.
Breaches in dams and "quake lakes", which are formed by landslides, are a major source of concern and scores of thousands of people have been evacuated. After an earthquake in the region in 1786, the breach of a landslide dam 10 days after the initial tremor killed 100,000 people.Heavy rain and high winds were forecast for yesterday and today.
Rescuers now have around a month before the Sichuan rainy season begins in earnest and need to shore up as many dams as possible in that time.
The aftershocks are spreading terror among the people who are already shattered by the quake, particularly children, and they point towards the next grim battle in trying to rebuild Sichuan - combating post-earthquake trauma.
Deborah Barry, a child psychologist with Save the Children, was in one of the aid organisation's child- friendly centres in Mianzhu stadium when the aftershock struck.
"I was sitting with a child whose building blocks toppled when the ground shook. We set up these centres to give children places to feel safe and protected. The children seemed relieved that the tent stayed standing. 'It's okay!' they said when the shaking stopped."
"One of the children in our centre said there had been another aftershock at 3am this morning and that aftershocks wake them up all of the time. It is more urgent than ever that we provide the support to these children," she said.
Also in Mianzhu, an 80-year-old partially paralysed man was pulled alive from the rubble on Friday, 266 hours after the main quake hit, state media reported.