Rescue workers in China’s earthquake-hit Sichuan province continue to search for survivors, despite further tremors and bad weather, as officials put the death toll at over 32,000.

One man who had been trapped for 139 hours was pulled alive from a collapsed hospital on Sunday, “only slightly bruised”, China’s state news agency reported.Tang Xiong was pulled from the wreckage in Beichuan in the northern part of the province “only slightly bruised and in his right senses”, Xinhua said.

Later, a 53-year-old man was pulled from the rubble in the devastated town of Yingxiu, after surviving for 148 hours. At least 63 people were rescued alive a day earlier.

But bad weather and aftershocks have hindered rescue efforts, with one tremor registering a 6.0-magnitude hitting the region early on Sunday and killing at least three people. State television reported that rescue crews in the quake-ravaged region had gone on heightened alert following the overnight aftershock, fearful further strong tremors could hurt their teams.

“Rainfall and the aftershock have added difficulties to rescue efforts,” it said, giving no details.

China has experienced more than 20 aftershocks of 5.0 or above on the Richter scale since the initial earthquake last Monday.

Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Dujiangyan, said hopes of finding more survivors were fading.

“The rescue operation seems to be moving from recovery of the living to removal of the dead,” he said.

“It’s unlikely we’re going to see many more survivors now than we’ve been seeing in the last few days.

The government says it expects the final toll to surpass 50,000 people.

More than 4.8 million people have been left homeless.

National mourning

China on Sunday revised upwards the magnitude of the earthquake to 8.0 on the Richter scale.

Beijing also declared three days of national mourning, to start on Monday, for victims of the earthquake.

The Olympic torch relay will also be suspended during that time.

Beijing Olympic organisers said in a statement on Sunday that the suspension would “express our deep mourning to the victims of the earthquake”.

The government is also ordering all flags be flown at half-staff and a halt to all public recreation activities.

Rescue efforts

The official People’s Daily newspaper urged a nationwide “battle” against the disaster amid a rush by Chinese to volunteer.

“More than ever, people are aware that to win the battle against the devastating earthquake requires the contribution of the whole country,” the newspaper said in a commentary.

As rescue work resumed on Sunday, flood threats from blocked rivers appeared to have eased, after three backed-up rivers overflowed without causing major problems, state media reported.

Xinhua quoted Liu Ning, engineer-in-chief with the ministry of water resources, as saying some facilities, such as reservoirs and hydroelectric stations, have been damaged but that no reservoirs burst.

Worries about possible flooding had earlier sent thousands of people fleeing the area.

More than 10,600 people are known to be still buried nearly a week after the earthquake shattered tens of thousands of buildings in dozens of towns and cities in Sichuan, Xinhua said, citing regional officials.

Experts say buried earthquake survivors can last a week or more, depending on factors including the temperature and whether they have water to drink.

International aid

Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, has urged rescue teams to reach remote villages battered by the earthquake, according to Xinhua.

The number of security forces helping victims rose to almost 150,000, and the government added cash payments of $715 to each family that lost a member.

But some residents in the earthquake-hit areas complained the government was not doing enough

Rescue efforts continued on Sunday, despite threats of further aftershocks [AFP]

The Associated Press said that one of its reporters was stopped at a petrol station in Miangyang city on Sunday, by a group of about 15 people appealing for help for their village, Xiushui.

“The government is doing nothing to help us,” said one man, handing over a note which said it had been signed “by the people of Xiushui”.

More than 200 rescuers from Japan, Russia, South Korea and Singapore have been searching alongside Chinese soldiers.

International aid continued to arrive, with a US air force cargo plane landing in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu on Sunday, carrying tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals.

Chinese authorities are also battling to prevent the outbreak of disease, with the risks heightened by the rotting carcasses of 12.5 million livestock and poultry.

“Combating epidemics is the most urgent and the biggest task facing us right now,” Wei Chaoan, vice minister of agriculture, said on Saturday.

The World Health Organisation said that the lack of safe drinking water or proper waste disposal along with cramped conditions in temporary shelters was “conducive” to outbreaks.

“Preventing communicable disease outbreaks is the key public health issue now facing the People’s Republic of China,” the UN body said in a statement.

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A severe tropical cyclone with winds of up to 240km per hour has hit Myanmar, cutting off electricity supplies in the city of Yangon and raising fears of serious casualties.

Roofs were reportedly torn off buildings and trees blown over on Saturday, but details were difficult to come by as telephone and internet connections were affected. A UN official in neighbouring Thailand said that staff had managed to contact a colleague in the former capital as the eye of the storm passed overhead.

“A lot of roofs from well-constructed buildings have been blown off,” Tony Craig, regional emergency co-ordinator for the World Food Programme (WFP), told the Reuters news agency.

“That would lead you to believe that less well-constructed buildings will have taken a really big whack.”

Flights diverted

An official at Yangon International Airport said all incoming flights had been diverted to the second city of Mandalay, in the middle of the southeast Asian nation, and all departures from Yangon had been cancelled.

An official at Thai Airways in Bangkok said the airline planned to resume flights on Sunday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties but an official in the capital Naypyidaw told the AFP news agency that some fishing boats were missing.

The Associated Press news agency reported an official from the country’s meteorology department, who refused to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press, as saying: “The cyclone wreaked havoc in Yangon.”

“The damage will be extensive as the cyclone passed through many densely populated areas,” the official said.

States of emergency

The Federation of Trade Unions, Burma said from Thailand that the military government had declared states of emergency in five affected provinces, most of them in the low-lying floodplains of the Irrawaddy delta.

Cyclone Nargis made landfall around the mouth of the Irrawaddy river, about 220km southwest of Yangon, before hitting the country’s economic hub.

Tens of thousands of people were made homeless in the Irrawaddy delta last August after unusually heavy rains triggered floods in the low-lying region.

On Saturday evening it was forecast to move northeast towards Thailand, which warned that flash floods could hit the north, centre and east of the country and said heavy rains were expected until Monday.