At least 57 people died and more than 300 others were seriously injured at the county seat of Wenchuan, the epicenter of a strong earthquake that struck southwest China Monday afternoon, a local official said early Tuesday.

"This is only rough number of casualties at the county seat. The figure is highly possible to rise as the casualties in the mountainous area is not available," said Wang Bin, Communist Party secretary of Wenchuan County, the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, Sichuan Province, told Xinhua through satellite phone at 7:15 AM on Tuesday.

According to Wang, another 60,000 residents in Wenchuan were out of research since the quake occurred.

"More than 30,000 residents are staying outdoors at the county seat despite heavy rains," he said.

Wenchuan, with a population more than 105,000, was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake at 2:28 PM on Monday. A number of aftershocks have been recorded.

Wang appealed for emergency aid via a satellite phone early Tuesday, almost 11 hours after the county was cut off from the outside world.

"We are in urgent need of tents, food, medicine and satellite communications equipment through air drop. We also need medical workers to save the injured people here," he said.

Rescuers are yet to reach Wenchuan, 159 km northwest of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, because all roads leading to the county have been destroyed by landslides and telecommunication links have also been cut.

At about 1:15 AM on Tuesday, He Biao, deputy secretary-general of the Aba prefectural government finally reached Wang Bin via a satellite phone, according to a statement posted on the website of the prefectural government.

"Wang Bin said between sobs that most of farmers' houses had collapsed in two townships, and most of the houses in the county seat are in danger," the statement said. "More than 30,000 residents stay outdoors in the county seat and dare not go home."

"There is still no news about the situation in the townships of Yingxiu, Wolong and Xuankou, which are located exactly at the epicenter," it said.

The three townships have a total population of more than 24,000, it said.

Wenchuan administers 13 townships and has a total population of 105,436. The county seat lies at the Weizhou Township.

The Aba prefecture has pledged to restore the damaged roads and communication networks soon "by every possible means", according to a separate statement posted on its official website.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who is in the City of Dujiangyan, about 100 km from the epicenter, has asked relief military personnel waiting in the city to enter the area as soon as possible even if they have to walk to Wenchuan.

"Road access to Wenchuan, which is key to our disaster relief work, must be made at all cost. Water and power supplies and telecommunication in quake-hit areas should be restored as soon as possible," the premier demanded.

Li Chongxi, deputy secretary of Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, led a rescue team to Wenchuan, but was stranded at Dujiangyan City.

"We are doing everything we can, but the roads are blanketed with rocks and boulders," Li said.

Altogether 59 people have been killed in the quake in the Aba prefecture, and 680 others injured, 67 severely, the statement said.

In Sichuan, more than 8,500 people were feared dead.

The powerful tremor was also strongly felt in many other parts of the country, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tibet.

In regions neighboring Sichuan, 85 were killed in Shaanxi Province, 48 in Gansu Province, 50 in Chongqing municipality, one in Yunnan Province and one in Henan Province.

The quake was the worst to strike China since the Tangshan earthquake in north China's Hebei Province in 1976, which claimed 242,000 lives.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)