Rescue workers mounted a gigantic search effort using cranes and manpower looking for survivors, but were hampered by rain in some areas of the hilly region.
"Transportation, electricity, communication and water supply should be resumed to ensure that the disaster relief work goes on successfully, and resuming transportation is the key," Premier Wen Jiabao said as he moved from one affected place to another overseeing relief works.
In Mianzhu, close to the epicentre, buildings of a steam turbine plant was destroyed with more than 500 workers and their family members missing or buried in the rubble, a company official said. "The other workers have been looking for the missing colleagues by digging out the collapsed buildings with shovels and even hands," the official added.
"People escaped from the buildings, but were only devoured by the landslides," said a survivor in Beichuan county where the killer quake flattened 80 per cent of the buildings.
The toll in the county is estimated up to 5,000, but local residents fear it could be 7,000 to 8,000, Xinhua said.
