BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Workers have repaired a highway that will help rescuers access a county devastated and isolated by the earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province, transport authorities said Sunday.
After two days of work, traffic was preliminarily restored on a quake-damaged section of the S210 highway that connects the isolated Baoxing County with neighboring Lushan County, the epicenter of the quake, sources at the Ministry of Transport told Xinhua.
So far, 26 people in Baoxing were confirmed dead and about 2,500 injured, county head Ma Jun told Xinhua on Sunday morning.
Rescue and relief supplies such as life detection equipment, tools, tents and raincoats have been transported to the county by two military helicopters, said sources with the Fire Department of the Ministry of Public Security earlier on Sunday.
The earthquake damaged almost every house in Baoxing, with a population of 58,000, including homes that had been built after the devastating quake in 2008, while water, electricity and gas supplies were all cut off, said Ma.
The death toll has risen to 186 after a 7.0-magnitude quake jolted Lushan County of Sichuan's Ya'an City at 8:02 a.m. Saturday Beijing time, according to latest statistics gathered by the provincial emergency response command center.
Twenty-one people are reported missing, and 11,393 others have been injured, according to the command center.
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