By Prensa Latina,
Beijing : The number of people killed by the violent quake last week in the Chinese province of Sichuan has reached 41,353, according to official figures.
The Council of State’s Information Office reported the death toll has risen by 1,278 since the official counting yesterday, and the number of wounded people currently amounts to 274,683, with 32,666 others missing.
Official sources had estimated the death toll could reach 50,000, a figure that seemed very high some days ago, but that is now likely to be higher.
Some economists have unofficially estimated about 71.50 billion dollars in material losses, with those in about 14,207 industrial plants surpassing 9 billion dollars, according to the Informatics Industry Ministry.
The reconstruction task seems monumental, as there are millions of homeless people and not enough tents.
China’s Communist Party secretary in Wenchuan Wang Bin said the earthquake destroyed almost all buildings in the district, and left factories and infrastructure in ruins.