China Mourns As Quake Death Toll Nears 50,000

May 16, 2008 12:52 a.m. EST

Juyuan, China (AHN) - Most of China is grieving as the death toll in Monday's devastating earthquake is estimated to breach the 50,000 mark.

Chinese officials also made a rare public appeal for equipment as the rescue and relief workers worked their way through the rubble of downed buildings in a search for possible survivors and to uncover corpses.

"Saving people's lives is the most important thing," Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier.

He was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, "Right now, we must race against time. If there is the slightest hope of rescuing those who are trapped, we will magnify our efforts 100 times."

Wen is in Sichuan's Beichuan county as he made a televised visit to a middle school turned into rubble by the earthquake.

Offers of help came from several other countries: Australia, with a search and rescue team, Japan offered firefighters, and the Czech Republic offered doghandlers to help in search and rescue operations.

However, the Communist nation rejected the offers.

Wang Zhenyao, head of China's civil affairs ministry's relief department, told the state's official news agency Xinhua, "Transportation in affected areas is obstructed, and it is impossible for our rescue teams to reach the disaster-hit areas."

He added, "the conditions are not yet ripe for us to allow international rescue teams into China," as reason for putting down foreign aid by other countries.