(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-05-23 10:28

A Sichuan government official said Friday that the death toll in last week's earthquake had risen to more than 55,000 by late Thursday.

Vice Governor Li Chengyun told a news conference in Beijing that the toll had reached 55,239, as of 19:00pm Thursday, up by about 4,000 from earlier in the day. The number of the injured was 281,066, and 24,949 remain missing.

The May 12 earthquake was centered in Wenchuan in Sichuan province.

"We need tents and makeshift houses, More than five million of the quake affected needs proper shelters," said Li. He said they also need cleaning machines.

The Quake-hit area needs antibiotics most among the medicines, he said at the press conference in Beijing Friday.

Li disclosed that four officials in Dujiangyan were punished for neglecting their duties in disaster relief.

He said that all those officials who failed to observe their duties will be punished.

Twelve supervision teams were sent by the provincial government to the quake-hit areas, and about 96 cases involving illegal market activities were found out.