Nearly 15,000 people died in the devastating earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.
More than 25,000 are still trapped in the rubble two days after the 7.9 quake struck, causing landslides and razing homes, schools and whole villages.
China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has flown to the epicentre to see relief work, having met survivors elsewhere.
Soldiers have rushed to a dam above one city over fears for its stability.
Some 2,000 troops have been sent to plug cracks in the dam – near the hard-hit city of Dujiangyan – says the Associated Press news agency, citing official Chinese media.
The 2,000-year-old dam feeds the fertile agricultural plain of Sichuan province. The irrigation system it feeds and Dujiangyan would be swamped if it were to fail, authorities have said.
No damage has been reported to the massive Three Gorges Dam, also in Sichuan province.
Sichuan’s Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said incomplete figures suggested 14,463 people were dead, another 14,051 were missing, 25,788 were buried in the debris and 64,746 had been injured, Xinhua reports.
Officials reached the town of Yingxiu, in Wenchuan County, to find the devastation was worse than expected – out of the town’s population of 10,000, only 2,300 have been found alive.
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The head of a police unit sent into the disaster zone said the losses had been severe.
"Some towns basically have no houses left," Wang Yi, told Sichuan Online news site. "They have all been razed to the ground."
Meteorologists are forecasting a small break in the poor weather that has hampered aid efforts.
Helicopters have now been able to fly into the quake zone to take food, drinking water and medicine to Yingxiu.
But the weather remains cloudy and more rain is expected at the end of the week, said the National Meteorological Centre.