Towns in China quake zone 'razed to ground': state media

BEIJING, May 14 -- Some towns near the epicentre of China's huge earthquake have been 'razed to the ground' with no houses left standing, a People's Armed Police official was quoted by state media saying Wednesday.

"The losses have been severe. Some towns basically have no houses left. They have all been razed to the ground," Wang Yi, head of an armed police unit sent into the disaster zone, was quoted as saying by Sichuan Online news site.

Wang said "some" of the eight towns in Wenchuan county at the epicentre of the 7.9-magnitude earthquake had suffered the heavy damage.

He did not specify exactly how many towns had been flattened by the quake that struck on Monday but was quoted as saying they "include" the towns Yingxiu, Xuankou, and Wolong.

"Mountain villages in the surrounding area have also been basically razed to the ground," he added.

He said there had been at least 337 deaths in the area but that relief teams were still calculating the toll.

Earlier state media reports in Wednesday said at least 7,700 people had died in Yingxiu alone.

Only 2,300 people in Yingxiu town survived Monday's quake, local government official He Biao was quoted by Xinhua news agency saying.

The town has a population of about around 10,000, according to state media.

More than 1,000 of the survivors in Yingxiu were seriously injured, the report said.

Wenchuan has a population of around 106,000 according to the latest government figures.

The area's commercial and political centre is Weizhou with a population of around 31,000. Yingxiu has around 10,000 people, Xuankou 15,000 and Wolong 3,000 according to media reports and government figures.

The area has a diverse population with hefty Qiang and Tibetan minorities, alongside Han Chinese who make up the largest group.

The economy is driven by the region's forestry and mineral resources, as well as tourism, thanks largely to the famous Wolong panda park, a major centre for the country's breeding programme for the endangered species.

The death toll from the earthquake is about 20,000 but that figure is expected to rise dramatically once the full devastation from hard-to-reach areas such as Yingxiu is confirmed.

(Agencies)