Beijing - The confirmed death toll from a devastating earthquake in south-western China rose to about 20,000 Thursday, as troops stepped up efforts to rescue survivors and get vital aid to tens of thousands of people in isolated towns and villages. The Sichuan provincial government said it had confirmed more than 19,500 deaths following Monday's quake, while neighbouring provinces had already reported more than 300 deaths.
Dozens of extra helicopters and planes were brought in to drop food, clothing and bedding to residents of Sichuan's worst-hit counties of Beichuan and Wenchuan.
The government said it would allow the first foreign rescue teams, from Japan and Taiwan, into Sichuan and was considering an offer of help from an Australian team.
It also imposed temporary controls on food prices and transportation fares in Sichuan and three neighbouring regions to "stem hoarding and speculation," the official Xinhua news agency said.
The move followed reports that some food vendors in Sichuan's Mianyang city, where nearly 20,000 people were reported missing in collapsed buildings, were fined for raising prices to more than double pre-quake levels.
Sichuan hospitals had treated more than 64,000 people injured in the quake by Thursday, including some 12,600 seriously injured people, Gao Qiang, the deputy minister of health, said.
The Beijing Military Command said its troops had found 38 survivors with the help of sniffer dogs.
Meanwhile, quake-damage to several dams and rivers posed new threats to some quake-hit towns and villages.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew over Wenchuan by helicopter on Wednesday, ordered an extra 90 military and civilian helicopters to be used in the relief operations, the agency said.
An additional 30 transport planes were also set to begin dropping supplies on Thursday.
More than 12.5 tons of relief goods were air-dropped by Wednesday, it said.
Railway ministry spokesman Wang Yongping said 844 freight cars were also en route to Sichuan carrying 79,700 tents, 828,600 boxes of water, 18,870 doses of medicine and 351,100 overcoats and blankets.
At least 130,000 troops and paramilitary police were sent to earthquake-hit areas, where tens of thousands of people are believed to be buried in rubble.
Several towns close to the epicentre were nearly razed, a military relief officer said Wednesday.
At least 26,000 people were believed to be buried in collapsed buildings, while Xinhua said more than 30,000 people were missing or out of contact in Sichuan's Shifang city alone.
At least 10,000 Chinese and foreign tourists were still stranded in two scenic areas close to the epicentre on Wednesday night, reports said.
Military helicopters began flying aid, medical personnel and relief troops to isolated settlements near the epicentre on Tuesday.
But the extent of the damage and casualties in Wenchuan, which has a population of 105,000, remained unclear.
A paramilitary officer who was one of the first outsiders to reach some of the worst affected areas on Tuesday said that several towns were almost razed to the ground.
Heavy rain had initially prevented helicopters from flying emergency aid to Wenchuan while troops were still restoring two badly damaged main roads to the county.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake was felt in cities hundreds of kilometres away, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bangkok.
