Earthquake survivors in Zhaosu County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the northwest are battling the bitter cold which fell to minus 25 degrees Celsius early yesterday as they awaited the arrival of relief materials.

　　"We sorely need fur coats, cotton shoes, caps and other winter clothes," said Zhang Yong, deputy division commander of the No 4 agricultural division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

　　However, local officials said 1,000 tents sent by civil affairs departments could only make their way to the quake-hit mountainous region two days later as roads covered by deep snow have delayed the arrival of relief materials from Urumqi, the regional capital.

　　Zhang said 1,226 people, most of whom are ethnic Mongolians, were seriously affected during Monday's quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale that struck the county bordering Kazakstan.

　　Experts from the national and regional seismological bureaus arrived in the hard-hit quake areas yesterday morning and immediately began to evaluate the quake situation.

　　As relief materials are still under way, quake survivors found it hard to recover from the shock of the unexpected earthquake that killed 10 people, a figure revised from the reporting of 11 because of miscalculation. Of those dead in the earthquake four are children ranging from 1 to 4 years old.

　　"Cries were all over following two major bomb-like cracks," recalled 39-year-old Dogujop, who was feeding his sheep.

　　"I brought out two kids from my house and then ran to help my neighbor, who was buried in his house," Dogujop said. "We could only dig with our own hands since we had no tools at hand."

　　More than 30 aftershocks were recorded since the major earthquake rocked the county on Monday but fortunately without new reports of casualties, local officials said.

　　To prevent further injuries amid continuous aftershocks, patrolling teams have been organized by local rescue workers to stop quake victims from entering their falling houses.

　　Soldiers and police officers were dismantling damaged houses to avoid the danger of them collapsing and hurting people. Some victims were sitting around fires to stay warm.

　　The earthquake toppled 702 residential rooms and seriously damaged another 487.

　　The direct economic losses estimated at more than 16 million yuan (US.9 million), according to local authorities.

　　Some 500 homeless people were transferred to relief tents while some tried to ward off the cold wind in busses amid the frigid weather.

　　Zhang yong, the senior corps officer, said the division's rescue command headquarters had mobilized more than 700 workers to dig caves underground to provide shelter for those homeless workers and cattle, but he said the work was slowed down by the low temperature.

　　The emergency food and clean water could "basically satisfy" people's needs, Zhang said.

　　However, quake victims are still worried about how to spend the half-year-long winter season in Zhaosu Countyswheresthe temperature could plummet to minus 40 degrees Celsius. They said the reconstruction of their damaged houses could begin only next spring.

　　"I'm feeling sad as we could hardly find a shelter in the freezing weather," said Dheligjo, a Mongolian who set up a makeshift tent in his backyard for his 80-year-old mother-in-law and kids of his neighbors.