Teams that have attempted to reach Wenchuan, epicenter of Monday's powerful earthquake in Sichuan Province, via land, air and water were thwarted.

An official with Sichuan Provincial Headquarters for Earthquake Control and Relief Efforts cited interrupted transport and telecom to the epicenter, alongside bad rainy weather as the key factors to hold back efforts to access the epicenter.

"The efforts to reach Wenchuan will by no means be stopped," said the official.

The roads to enter Wenchuan from Dujianyan City were fully cut and it is very difficult to repair them for the time being, so armed police officers were arranged to reach Wenchuan by riding two speedboats via a local reservoir at about 4:00 AM on Tuesday, but they were never heard from ever since.

In the meantime, the provincial headquarters originally planned to send a working group to reach Wenchuan by first taking a flight in Chengdu, the provincial capital, to an airport in Songpan, a county in Aba, and then resorting to the land connecting Wenchuan through Maoxian, also inside Aba.

"The plan could not be materialized as the plane could not take off because of poor rainy weather in Chengdu and Aba," said the official.

The land connecting Maoxian to Wenchuan was said to be destroyed in the earthquake and suspended from traffic at the moment.

Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefectural Government of Aba on Tuesday reported that more than 1,000 rescuers the prefectural government dispatched from Ma'erkang, the seat of Aba, were stranded on the way to Wenchuan because of impassable roads. Some of the rescuers who insisted in walking over to Wenchuan were also lost contact.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)