China death toll rises

The death toll from an earthquake in southwest China has risen to 589, according to local reports.

Hundreds of troops have been sent to Qinghai Province's Yushu county. The Xinhua news agency said teams of rescue workers as well as health and disease control experts had also been dispatched, along with groups tasked with detecting aftershocks.

Local officials had spoken on Wednesday of the urgent need for medicine and medical workers. Some aid shipments from private organisations have set off from the provincial capital, Xining.

More than 10,000 people were injured and thousands left homeless in freezing conditions after a series of quakes and aftershocks caused many of the low, mud-brick buildings in county to collapse, residents and state media said.

The main 6.9 quake was centred in the mountains that divide Qinghai province from the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Some bridges and roads around Yushu have cracked or been cut off completely, which could complicate rescue efforts, state television said.