CHENGDU: Fifty Chinese tourists were yesterday confirmed dead in Jiuzhaigou, a tourist attraction in the Aba prefecture of Sichuan.

The prefecture's emergency management office said that as of 8 pm Wednesday, more than 11,000 tourists were known to be stranded in Aba, including about 2,900 in Jiuzhaigou and more than 7,000 in Songpan county.

Yang Changqing, secretary-general of the Aba government, said 1,200 tourists were also stranded in Maoxian county.

Rescue teams are trying to evacuate the tourists by road and air, Yang said, but eastern and southern parts of the ring road around Jiuzhaigou have been cut off.

A spokesman for the Jiuzhaigou tourism administration said more than 3,000 people had been evacuated by Wednesday, with the remainder expected to leave yesterday.

Foreign tourists evacuated

Meanwhile, 33 tourists from the UK, the United States and France arrived in Chengdu, the Sichuan capital, yesterday after being evacuated by military helicopter from quake-hit Wolong.

The tourists, who had been stranded since Monday in the town of Wenchuan, arrived just after 11 am. They were all said to be in good health.

Yang Wei, the captain of the helicopter, said: "They were anxious when we arrived in Wolong, but soon relaxed after getting on the chopper."

The relieved tourists gave the thumbs up to the helicopter crew as they left the aircraft.

Zhang Wenxiang, an official from the Wolong Giant Panda Administration, said on Wednesday that all of the tourists and journalists stranded in the town, 50 of them foreigners, were safe.

They were moved to a hotel after the quake struck, he said.

The telecommunications network in Wolong, which is famous for its Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, has been down since Monday.

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/16/2008 page4)