Jiuzhaigou : China on Thursday ramped up its response to an earthquake that killed 19 people and injured hundreds, sending supplies and personnel into the mountainous zone as rescuers fanned out to search for more victims.
AFP journalists in Jiuzhaigou, a popular tourist destination near the epicentre of Tuesday night's 6.5-magnitude quake, saw dozens of relief and military trucks rolling through the remote corner of Sichuan province.
Locals took refuge in blue relief tents in several makeshift camps or out on streets in towns as menacing aftershocks and landslides kept nerves on edge.
The quake's epicentre was near Jiuzhaigou, an area populated largely by ethnic Tibetans and Qiang people.
Jiuzhaigou's scenic beauty is popular with Chinese tourists who flock to its national park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and tens of thousands of visitors were evacuated Wednesday.
But authorities were searching for more, with the Sichuan provincial fire department saying 16 tourists were believed stranded at a lake in the national park.
Yang Yongzhi was among a search team in red jumpsuits and hardhats who were forced by landslides to turn back Wednesday night after trying to press into cut-off valleys.
"This morning we plan to try again," Yang said.
"We're responsible for finding if there are still people trapped over there. We're the first to go check."
The tremor evoked memories of a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake in the region in 2008 that left 87,000 people dead or missing, but the impact of Tuesday's disaster was comparatively light.
Authorities kept the death toll unchanged Thursday at 19 but scores more injured turned up, bringing the total to 343, 34 of them seriously hurt. A Frenchman and a Canadian woman were among the injured.
The quake tore cracks in mountain highways and AFP journalists saw cars that had been smashed by giant falling boulders.
