The death toll of the mountain torrents happened last Friday in Shalan Township of Ning'an City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, rose to 99 as of 3:30 PM Tuesday, while the whereabouts of ten other pupils are still unknown.

The victims include 95 pupils of Shalan Central Primary School and four local villagers, said the local government.

Wang Tongtang, secretary general of the nearby city of Mudanjiang, said 161 pupils, who survived the fatal disaster, went back to classes on Tuesday.

Rescue operation and disaster relief work are still going on with a tense manner, said the official.

The local government has allocated 65,000 rations of food and 35,000 kilograms of flour to the disaster-hit people.

Some experts were dispatched to the disaster-hit areas, helping the farmers to resume their agricultural production.

The local health department has organized 21 medical teams to the areas in case of plagues after the mountain torrent.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2005)