A middle school in southwest China's Sichuan province, battered in the May 12 magnitude 8 earthquake, is expected to be built into an earthquake relic park for quake research.

The shattered but still standing buildings of the Xuankou Middle School, in Yingxiu town, Wenchuan county, where 44 students and teachers died in the earthquake, will be kept to provide original data for the future quake research, said an official with the Aba Prefecture Quake Relief Headquarters on Sunday.

The Xuankou Middle School will be the center of the future Wenchuan Earthquake Relic Park, he said.

Architecture and cultural relics experts picked up steel bars and concretes in the school on Sunday for research purpose.

The May 12 quake had killed more than 5,000 people in Yingxiu town and 15,941 in Wenchuan county by June 1, according to local official statistics.

It had killed 69,136 people nationwide as of Sunday noon, the State Council Information Office said.

A total of 374,061 people were injured and 17,686 others remained missing after the 8.0-magnitude quake that jolted southwestern Sichuan Province and neighboring regions.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2008)