Geo 436 JIEGU: The death toll from a strong quake that rocked a remote Tibetan region of China surged past the 1,000 mark on Friday, as tonnes of food, clothes and other vital supplies started pouring in. Preparations were meanwhile under way for the cremation of hundreds of victims of the disaster as concern turned toward the risk of disease outbreaks in the quake zone, centred on the town of Jiegu in Qinghai province. A journalist saw hundreds of bodies laid out on the floor of a warehouse-like structure at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery overlooking the town, with locals saying the dead were to be cremated from Saturday. As of Friday evening the official number of dead had risen to 1,144, the state's news agency said, up from a toll of 791 earlier in the day. Yet it could rise further with more than 400 still missing. The wail of sirens and stench of death filled the air as relief vehicles thundered through the hard-hit town in Yushu county. Thousands of survivors of Wednesday’’s 6.9-magnitude earthquake have waited desperately for large-scale shipments of food and other aid, having spent two freezing and hungry nights out in the open after many buildings crumbled. “I have lost everything,” a distraught ethnic Tibetan woman who gave her name as Sonaman told media.
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