DUJIANGYAN, China—Bodies covered with sheets lined streets as rescue workers dug through schools and homes turned into rubble by China’s worst earthquake in three decades in a desperate attempt to rescue victims trapped beneath concrete slabs.
The official death toll rose today to nearly 12,000—and thousands remained missing.
But hope that many survivors would be found was fleeting. Buildings were knocked down on every block in some cities, and corpses were laid out in the street and in schoolyards.