By Xinhua,
Beijing : The toll in China’s devastating earthquake has risen to 69,000 with more than 18,000 people still missing, the government said Sunday.
About 15 million people have been affected in the May 12 quake in the northwest province of Sichuan. Disaster relief workers had relocated some 951,975 people from the quake-hit areas to safer places till date.
The Chinese government has allocated 22.61 billion yuan (about $3.23 billion) so far for quake relief work, officials said. In addition, donations from home and abroad to the quake-hit regions had reached 41.5 billion yuan ($5 billion).
Around 701,500 tents, 4.41 million quilts, 11.35 million garments, 620,000 tonnes of fuel oil and about 1.27 million tonnes of coal were sent to the quake-hit areas. Some 7,600 makeshift shelters have been set up for the quake-affected people.