Rescuers are racing against time to reach and search for survivors a day after the strongest quake to hit China in more than three decades jolted the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The country was in mourning as the death toll spiraled toward 12,000. The national English-language newspaper, China Daily, silhouetted the front page in black to mourn the victims.

The headline reads: "The Day the Earth Moved."

Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to Sichuan on Monday evening, urged the public to have "composure, confidence and courage" in the face of the catastrophe.

As of 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake had climbed to 11,921, according to the ad hoc headquarters of the disaster relief headed by Premier Wen. Of the dead, 11,608 were in Sichuan.

ARDUOUS ACCESS TO EPICENTER

Wenchuan County, the epicenter, has reported 57 confirmed deaths and about 60,000 residents have yet to be reached.

"I am so worried! So worried!" He Biao, a government official with the Aba Autonomous Prefecture of Tibetan and Qiang nationalities, Sichuan Province, exclaimed to Xinhua over the phone. Wenchuan forms part of the prefecture.

Wenchuan and neighboring areas are situated in the steep hills north of Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu. Attempts to reach the epicenter "via land, air and water were all thwarted" by a combination of transport and communications problems and rain, said an official with the Sichuan provincial relief headquarters.

Premier Wen ordered the removal of rocks and mud slides that are blocking roads to the epicenter by midnight on Tuesday. "People are trapped in debris; we must use every second," he told an emergency meeting at 7:00 a.m.

As of 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 16,760 soldiers had joined in the disaster relief efforts. Another 34,000 members of the Jinan and Chengdu military area commands were advancing toward the disaster-stricken regions by plane, train, road -- and even on foot.

The air force has been ordered to parachute relief troops into Wenchuan if rainy weather conditions continue to block helicopter landings.

The General Staff Department (GSD) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) issued the order early on Tuesday in an effort to speed up the deployment of rescuers.

The GSD ordered at 9 a.m. that 10,000 relief troops stationed in the eastern province of Shandong be transported by air instead of rail to Sichuan to save time. Also, civilian aircraft have been mobilized to help with transportation.

By Tuesday noon, some 1,300 rescue and relief troops, including doctors and soldiers, had arrived at Wenchuan County for the first time after the quake struck and started operations in rain.

FRANTIC SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS

In Beichuan County, about 160 kilometers northeast of the epicenter of Wenchuan County, rescuers were searching frantically for survivors in the rubble. At least 1,000 students and teachers were buried when a school in the county collapsed following the quake.

The main building of the Beichuan Middle School, a seven-story structure, had been reduced to a pile of rubble about 2 meters high.

About 2,000 students, parents and villagers waited on campus overnight as nearly 1,000 armed police searched for survivors in the ruins. Some covered themselves with quilts as it began to rain early on Tuesday.

Many parents burst into tears when a rescuer carried a teen-age girl out of the ruins. She had lost her legs.

Chen Linglin huddled with her 7th-grade classmates, waiting for help. "We need food and water more than anything else," she said.

The quake, the worst to hit China since the Tangshan quake of 1976, also toppled schools and buildings elsewhere in Sichuan and the neighboring Chongqing Municipality, trapping thousands.

In Anchang Township, Anxian County, about 20 km from Beichuan, power, water and gas supplies were disrupted and food and drinking water have become scarce. Most stores in town have run out of supplies and many residents are living on leftovers from two days ago.

A spokesman for the China Seismological Bureau (CSB) said here Tuesday that rescuers have saved 58 people trapped under collapsed buildings and rubbles so far. Rescue teams sent by the CSB, Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality have rescued 21 people, 22 people and 15 people respectively, said Zhang Hongwei at a press conference.

"The rescue work remains very difficult," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)