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TOUGH CHOICE: There was no way out for student Yang Liu, who was trapped at her school in Hanwang.. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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IN HANWANG TOWN - COVERED in mud, their clothes torn, some with purple bruises on their faces, the exhausted villagers limped into the main public square in Hanwang town.
They had walked for eight hours, starting out at daybreak on Wednesday, climbing mountains and crossing streams in order to flee their quake-hit villages in the hills.
They took nothing with them except the soiled clothes on their backs.
Their home towns, including the Qingping, Tianchi and Jinhua villages, had been totally cut off from the outside world since Monday's quake and the situation there was dire, survivors told The Straits Times.
The villages are inaccessible because of quake-triggered landslides and broken roads, local officials told the Xinhua news agency yesterday.
Some 20,000 residents are still trapped in the hills and the number of casualties was unclear, Xinhua said. It did not give the total population of the three villages.
Although Hanwang - a township about a two-hour drive north of Chengdu city, the capital of southwest Sichuan province - was also battered by the quake, it has access to medical supplies and rescue teams because the roads leading to it from other cities are unaffected.
As a result, survivors from the nearby mountain villages have made their way there.
In Hanwang's public square, tents for the 'quake refugees' have been put up and medical staff were busy treating injured patients when The Straits Times arrived on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Wang Jia, 20, had been visiting relatives in Qingping when the office building he was in collapsed.
He was trapped for two hours before he managed to dig his way out.
His right hand had swollen to twice its normal size. There were deep cuts and bruises on his head and shoulders.
Doctors treating him at a makeshift medical tent said that he might have some broken ribs.
Despite being in severe pain, he made the dangerous journey into Hanwang town because 'I did not want to stay there and wait for death', he told The Straits Times.
To reach the hilltop villages, a team of 500 People's Liberation Army soldiers carrying medicine and food set out on foot on Wednesday.
China has launched a massive rescue operation, deploying over 130,000 troops and paramilitary police into stricken areas to distribute aid and search for survivors.
However, it might be too late for many, especially in hard-to-reach remote areas as the days wear on.
Another Qingping survivor said that the village had been reduced to rubble.
Ms Kong Xiaoming, 32, a primary school teacher, said: 'So many are dead, many others are buried alive. Those who can't leave lack food, water and medicine. No one is helping them.'
tracyq@sph.com.sg
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