By IANS,
Beijing : Top Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, Wednesday paid tributes here to more than 2,000 victims of the devastating quake in northwest Qinghai province, while thousands of people gathered at the quake site to pay their last respects to the deceased.
At least 1,000 people gathered in front of the town hall in Gyegu Wednesday morning to mourn those who were killed in the earthquake April 14, Xinhua reported.
The 7.1-magnitude quake that struck Yushu in Qinghai province last Wednesday left 2,064 people dead. At least 175 people were still missing Tuesday. The quake also left 12,135 people injured.
All sections of people from the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu wore white paper flowers, a traditional symbol of mourning in China, and stood in silence at 10 a.m local time.
At Tiananmen Square in the capital, thousands of people watched the national flag hoisted to full height and then lowered to half-mast at about 5.33 a.m.
Even the rescuers, still working all-out to search for at least 175 missing people, stopped for three minutes to mourn.
A banner hung in front of the Gyegu town hall said, “In memory of our compatriots killed in Yushu earthquake.”
Eight hundred km from Yushu, thousands of people gathered in the town square in Qinghai’s provincial capital Xining to mourn the dead. They stood in silent tribute, with wreaths and white flowers in their hands.