Premier orders to open up roads to epicenter before 12 PM

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao ordered to remove barriers and open up roads to epicenter before 12:00 p.m. Tuesday after a strong earthquake jolted southwest China's Sichuan Province Monday afternoon.

Wen held an emergency meeting at 07:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, saying, "We must try our best to open up roads to the epicenter and rescue people trapped in the disaster-hit areas."

The 7.8-magnitude quake, which occurred in Wenchuan Monday afternoon, has killed 9,219 people in eight affected provinces and municipality including Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou and Hubei, the ministry said in a release issued at 7:00 a.m.

The road from Dujiangyan, a city northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, to Wenchuan, the epicenter, was blocked by rocks and mud slides, holding up rescue, medical and other disaster relief teams.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)