China's military has begun dropping relief supplies into areas devastated by a massive earthquake, as rescuers struggle to reach trapped survivors.

"Two helicopters from the Chengdu Military Region have already begun dropping food into the earthquake-affected area of Yingxiu town," said Lieutenant General Li Shiming, commander of the People's Liberation Army's Chengu region.

In pictures: China earthquake

Yingxiu, in Sichuan province's Wenchuan county, is one of the towns hardest hit by the quake - of a population of 10,000, some 7,700 people are believed to have died.

Local government official He Biao told the Xinhua news agency that just 2,300 people had survived, with more than 1,000 of those left serioulsy injured.

Lieutenant General Li said the army planned to carry out at least 20 airdrops across the region on Wednesday, after initial plans to parachute aid and troops in on Tuesday were hampered by bad weather.

More than 12,000 people were killed in Monday's 7.9-magnitude quake, and thousands remain missing - trapped in collapsed factories, schools and homes.

Experts fear the reported death toll will soar as communications are restored.

Bad weather hampering efforts

Television footage showed the scale of the devastation, with buildings reduced to rubble, roads split in two, and rescue teams scrambling frantically to free those stuck under mountains of concrete.

Olympics organisers have scaled back the torch relay in progress around China, but there have been angry internet protests that the event is to continue at all in the wake of the disaster.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who admitted on Tuesday that the tragedy was worse than the government had first thought, said authorities were struggling to cope.

"At present, we have great difficulties carrying out our rescue work," he told a crisis meeting at disaster relief headquarters in Dujiangyan.

China has mobilised its 2.3 million-strong armed forces to lead the search and rescue effort, but the teams had to hike to Wenchuan district over mountainous terrain because of bad weather and damaged roads.

Officials are pleading for urgent supplies of food, medicine and rescue equipment to help ensure the health and safety of those not killed in the initial tremors.

Thousands trapped in factory

Xinhua, the official news agency, has had difficulty providing a full picture of the chaos, with snapshots emerging from those towns and villages not completely cut off by the quake.

Up to 5,000 are thought to have died in the district of Beichuan; thousands more were buried under a flattened factory nearby; at least 600 were killed and 2,300 trapped in the city of Shifang, where there was a major chemical leak.

Xinhua also quoted officials from just one city saying 18,645 people were buried there, but that could not be confirmed.

World powers including the United States, European Union, Japan, the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee have rallied round with pledges of help.

China has welcomed the offers but said conditions were "not yet ripe" to allow in foreign rescue teams, citing damage to transport links.

The earthquake is the deadliest to strike China in a generation. Some 242,000 people died when the northern city of Tangshan was flattened in 1976.


Source: SBS staff and agencies