China searches for quake survivors, toll nears 30,000

By Chris Buckley

BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - Thousands of soldiers and families looking for missing kin streamed into one of the worst affected areas of China's massive earthquake on Sunday, as a strong new aftershock hit and the death toll neared 30,000.

Rescue workers have plucked more than 60 more survivors from the rubble following Monday's quake in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, even as hopes fade for the estimated 10,000 people or so still trapped under the rubble.

The United States Geological Survey reported a tremor of 6.1 magnitude early on Sunday centred 80 km west of Guangyuan, the latest in a series of aftershocks to hit Sichuan.

The official Xinhua news agency said there was no immediate word of additional damage or casualties in the area.

In the provincial capital, Chengdu, some 200 km south of the new tremor's epicentre, buildings swayed and people rushed out into the streets, risking a soaking from a passing storm.

But nuclear facilities close to the affected zone, including China's chief nuclear weapons research lab, are "all in a safe and controllable state", Xinhua said.

In Beichuan, hard hit by the quake and which many people fled on Saturday following warnings a dam may collapse, worried relatives quarrelled with police who tried to prevent them entering the area, citing safety reasons.

"I've travelled all this way, and I don't know where my father is," said Chen Shiquan, who had come back from the neighbouring province of Qinghai where he works to look for this father, Chen Xiaoqu.