Associated Press
A strong aftershock sparked landslides Friday near the epicenter of this week's powerful earthquake, while some survivors were pulled from rubble after being buried for four days.
Helicopters dropped leaflets urging people to "unite together" and providing survival tips.
The first foreign rescue workers since Monday's magnitude 7.9 temblor were allowed to enter the country: The first time ever that China accepted outside professionals for domestic disaster relief, Foreign Ministry counselor Li Wenliang told the official Xinhua News Agency.
Officials have said the quake's final toll could reach 50,000. (See photos of the earthquake's destruction.)
A day past what experts call the critical three-day window for finding survivors, rescuers pulled a nurse to safety who had been trapped for 96 hours in the debris of a clinic in Beichuan county, one of 17 people saved there, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Survivors also were being found elsewhere, with a man pulled from the wreckage of a fertilizer plant near Shifang city.
An aftershock rattled parts of central Sichuan Province Friday afternoon, Xinhua said, citing its reporters at the scene. A number of vehicles were buried on a road leading to the epicenter, and casualties were unknown.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the latest tremor measured magnitude 5.5, one of the strongest among dozens that have shaken the area.
Heavy Child Casualties
Education and housing officials, meanwhile, took the rare move of fielding questions online from angry Chinese citizens over the many children who died in the quake. The official child death toll had risen to about 22,069 on Friday, and another 14,000 still were buried in Sichuan.
The government said it would investigate why so many school buildings collapsed in the quake—destroying about 6,900 classrooms, not including the hardest-hit counties—and severely punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction. (Watch video taken during the quake.)
More than 4 million apartments and homes had been damaged or destroyed in Sichuan Province, according to Housing Minister Jiang Weixin. Jiang said the water supply situation was "extremely serious" in Sichuan, and not flowing at all in 20 cities and counties.
