At least 8,533 people died on Monday in China's Sichuan province after a powerful earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.8, struck at 1428 local time (0628 GMT). About 5,000 of the victims were from one country.
The epicenter of the earthquake was about 92km (57 miles) from Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital.
As at press time, at least 50 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of a school where an estimated 900 students were buried. Several schools and a water tower collapsed in the tremor, the official Xinhua news agency said. Many more were feared killed and injured in other parts of the country after the quake.

Owing to the fact that the earthquake struck in the middle of the day, it is feared that many school children may be among the victims. Authorities in Sichuan province believed over 10,000 people were injured in Beichuan County, in the northeastern part of the province.

Dozens of aftershocks have been reported since the quake, which was felt in Beijing, 1,545km (960 miles) away, and the Thai capital, Bangkok, 1,800km (1,200 miles) away. It was the strongest to hit Sichuan province in more than 30 years, Xinhua said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao urged "all-out" efforts to rescue victims.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to Chengdu immediately, said China needed "calm, confidence, courage and strong leadership,” adding: “We will definitely overcome this major disaster."
United States President George W. Bush expressed condolences to victims' families, while Japan offered to send aid.

The Sichuan provincial disaster relief headquarters said 80 percent of the buildings collapsed in the Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County. Hundreds of people were reported to have been buried in two collapsed chemical plants in Shifang, and at least five other schools were reported to have collapsed.
The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.

Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the Olympics, which start in August.
The quake was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand.
Four children died when two elementary schools in Chongqing municipality collapsed, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Xinhua did not give any other details on the 900 buried students or say if any of the students were thought to be alive.
The quake affected telephone and power networks, and even state media appeared to have few details of the disaster.

"In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication convertors have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service," said Sha Yuejia, deputy chief executive officer of China Mobile.
Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to The Associated Press, saying there were power and water outages there.

He said in the message: "Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting."
Xinhua said an underground water pipe ruptured near the city's southern railway station, flooding a main thoroughfare.

Reporters saw buildings with cracks in their walls but no collapses, Xinhua said.
The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China's deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people. The U.S. Geological Survey described it as "a dangerous earthquake" given its proximity to densely populated areas.