(China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-21 07:39

The death toll from last week's quake in Sichuan rose to 40,075 nationwide as of 6 pm on Tuesday, with 247,645 injured, the Information Office of the State Council said on Tuesday.

Soldiers feed milk to Song Xinyi, a 3-year-old earthquake survivor, in earthquake-hit Beichuan County, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 14, 2008. [Xinhua]

The office also said that 32,361 people were missing.

Military sources said that as of Monday midnight, 6,375 people were pulled out from debris.

The Ministry of Public Security said a DNA database of the unidentified dead would be built for later identification.

Identified bodies will be cremated and burial allowed in areas where cremation services are unavailable, the ministry said.

As for the unidentified, police and medical workers will keep a record, take pictures and collect body tissues for DNA tests.

A team of 160 forensic experts from neighboring provinces has reached the quake-hit regions of Sichuan, the ministry said. They will be divided into 44 groups to assist local forensic teams.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said about 5.36 million buildings were destroyed, with more than 21 million suffering various degrees of damage.

The quake affected 434 counties in 10 provinces and municipalities, the ministry said.

The provincial power grids in quake-hit Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi as well as Chongqing municipality are back to normal operation, while electricity supply in Gansu, Chongqing and Shaanxi has been restored to normal levels.

But power was still out in the worst-hit Beichuan, Maoxian and Wolong counties, the information office said.

Till on Tuesday, 7,000 aftershocks were felt after last Monday's magnitude-8 quake.

A forecast of a strong aftershock in Sichuan province late on Monday prompted panic among the local residents as well as in the neighboring Chongqing municipality and Guizhou province.

The Sichuan seismological bureau forecast on Monday night that a 6-7 magnitude aftershock was likely to rock Wenchuan county, epicenter of the May 12 quake, on Monday or on Tuesday, and warned local governments and people to be prepared.

The forecast, which was broadcast on TV and radio in Sichuan, sent many citizens in the provincial capital Chengdu scurrying out of their homes and into the open.

Several thousand aftershocks have jolted Wenchuan since last Monday's devastating quake.

Nearly 9,000 people in a quake zone were evacuated on Tuesday for fear that huge cracks on a mountain could lead to further disaster.

Many crevices, measuring up to 1.5 km long and 50 cm wide, have been spotted on Shiziliang Mountain in the Qingchuan county seat, Guangyuan city, threatening about 50,000 people and rescuers.

Part of the mountain has sunk about 1 m and caused many roads to cave in.

Any new strong aftershock or heavy rainfall in the area could trigger severe landslides and cause casualties, according to the quake relief headquarters at the site.

The local government on Tuesday launched an emergency evacuation of 9,000 residents near the mountain. The area has been cordoned off and is under round-the-clock monitoring.