Beijing - Nearly 5 million people have temporarily or permanently lost their homes and have been evacuated to other places after the devastating earthquake in China's Sichuan province, the government said on Friday. Some 27,560 people were rescued from some of the worst-hit areas of Sichuan, while 4.8 million people needed temporary housing, provincial vice governor Li Chengyun said.
The confirmed death toll in Sichuan had risen to more than 21,500 and another 14,000 people were reported buried under rubble, the semi-official China News Service quoted Li as saying.
At least 159,000 people were injured in the quake, he said.
