A man is trapped in the debris in the earthquake-hit Beichuan County in southwest China’s Sichuan province.

Tempers flare as families get desperate for news on hundreds of children still trapped in the rubble of their school

The bodies of the young teenagers were brought out of the wreckage on doors scavenged from what remained of their school building.

Taken to the edge of the schoolyard, which had turned muddy after overnight rains, the earthquake victims were placed under a tarp canopy and wrapped in sheets and blankets. Some of the linens were splattered with blood.

A few family members lit incense and candles, while others set off fireworks to ward off evil spirits. Most, though, appeared numb with shock and sat quietly next to the three dozen bodies.

Angry relatives

There was little word on the rest of the nearly 900 teenagers who were believed to be trapped under their collapsed school building.

Hundreds of other relatives at the Juyuan Middle School were frantic after a night of waiting in the rain, shaking and wailing as they demanded

information.

"You tell us to wait, we can't wait any more. We must have some information," a woman pleaded with soldiers yesterday. The troops were lined too deep, keeping emotional family members away from the building.

The four-storey building collapsed on Monday after a massive 7.9-magnitude earthquake that was felt throughout much of China and as far away as Vietnam. The eighth and ninth-graders were apparently in class when the quake struck in the middle of the afternoon.

So far, rescuers have recovered more than 60 bodies, Xinhua news agency said. An exact count on the number of missing students is not known, although about 900 would have been in the building at the time of the quake.

Some managed to escape, while at least one was pulled out of the wreckage alive yesterday morning. The teenage girl was placed on a stretcher and rushed into an ambulance.