Parents hope at quake-destroyed schools

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Parents are waiting at schools destroyed by the devastating Chinese earthquake hoping their children will be pulled from the debris but hope is fading.

There are scattered success stories around Sichuan province but as time goes on they will be fewer.

The government estimated death toll rose Thursday to around 20,000 but could eventually top 50,000, Xinhua reported.

In Beichuan, parents of middle-school students waited, hoping recovery teams would pull their children alive from the rubble of a middle school but search teams Thursday could only recover bodies.

"There are teenagers wearing jeans and gym shoes and their bodies are twisted," CNN's John Vause said, reporting from just outside the school. "The expression on one girl's face was just pain -- she was dead."

Similar scenes were unfolding across a vast expanse of southwestern China. The 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Monday afternoon, when thousands of children were in class.

Chinese authorities have confirmed that at least several hundred children died in schools in one town alone -- and an untold number have perished in schools elsewhere. Watch as families face heartbreak »

"Anyone buried in an earthquake can survive without water and food for three days," said Gu Linsheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University's Emergency Management Research Center told The Associated Press. "After that, it's usually a miracle for anyone to survive."

At Beichuan Middle School, the recovery effort was a delicate paradox. Some of 200 rescue workers clawed at the rubble with bare hands, while others manned giant cranes to move tons of debris that used to make up the school.

A three-year-old girl was rescued from beneath a toppled building in Sichuan's Beichuan County on Thursday, Xinhua said. Photos of the rescue showed the girl had sustained a leg injury, but was otherwise alert.

And a frightened seventh-grade girl was pulled safely from the rubble of a school dormitory Wednesday evening -- 50 hours after she was buried by the earthquake, state-run media said. Watch as survivors are pulled from the rubble »

In other areas, mudslides, debris and fallen rocks continued to stall rescue efforts.

Premier Wen Jiabao has ordered extra soldiers and medics and 90 more helicopters for rescue missions in Sichuan province.

Some international assistance is being allowed in the quake's aftermath.

China's Foreign Ministry has given the go ahead for Japan to dispatch a professional rescue team to the earthquake zone, the agency's Web site said. Japan has extensive earthquake-rescue expertise, suffering through a number of large temblors over its history.

The Red Cross for the island of Taiwan, which China has been in dispute with since 1949 and which it regards as a renegade province, said it is being allowed to send a 20-man team, AP reported.

Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Vietnam and Poland are among the countries providing assistance, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Watch Chinese parachutists drop into the disaster zone »

The government also appealed to the Chinese public to donate rescue equipment including hammers, shovels, demolition tools and rubber boats. The plea on the Ministry of Information Industry's Web Site said 100 cranes were also needed.

Along Sichuan roads, piles of supplies, especially blankets and clothes, sprung up. In Mianyang, there was enough in one pile to distribute to the 10,000 people camping out at the nearby stadium. Others swarmed trucks delivering food and water.

A few roads to Wenchuan county -- the epicenter of the quake -- started to open, allowing military trucks to begin their haul to affected sites. State media has reported a lack of drinking water in the town of Yingxiu, adding that many people have not had water since Wednesday.

Aftershocks at times forced rescuers to evacuate fallen buildings, leaving crowds frustrated at knowing the fate of loved ones. Video from one scene shows a woman clinging to a crane after rescuers suspended one mission, deeming the crumbling site to dangerous to enter.

Nineteen British eco-tourists who had not been heard from since Monday's massive earthquake were located Thursday, and 14 of them were airlifted to a hotel in Chengdu, a spokeswoman with the British Foreign Office said.

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