Early examination of quake damage in Sichuan's Beichuan County, one of the areas hardest hit by Monday's quake, shows that 30 to 40 percent of the brick-concrete structures in the county collapsed, while 80 to 90 percent of the remained brick-concrete buildings were severely damaged.

The findings came from the China Seismological Bureau (CSB) earthquake assessment working group in Beichuan county.

Up to 5,000 people were feared dead in Beichuan and the figure is rising.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, quake death toll for Sichuan Province exceeded 19,500.

A lot of civilian houses were seriously or moderately ruined along the road from Mianyang city to Anxian County, places that were both hit hard by the disaster, according to the report.

As of 10:00 a.m. Thursday, emergency relief teams sent by the China Seismological Bureau (CSB) and 15 provinces and municipalities had saved 123 survivors in quake-hit areas.

The CSB had monitored 119 aftershocks above 4 degrees on the Richter scale as of 9 a.m. Thursday after the devastating earthquake on Monday in Wenchuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)