A strong quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province Monday afternoon.

Tremors were felt across China except the northeastern Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces and the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region.

The quake has caused thousands of deaths and injuries, destroyed towns and roads, and cut off electricity, communication, transportation and water supply. Chinese government has taken series of measures for disaster relief work.

Following are facts and figures of the quake and relief work as of Wednesday.

-- The death toll tallied 14,463 by 4:00 PM on Wednesday in Sichuan. Another 1,405 were missing, 25,788 buried in debris, and 64,746 injured, local official said.

-- The central government had allocated another 250 million yuan (35.7 million US dollars) to the relief fund for quake-hit areas Wednesday. This brought the disaster relief fund from the central budget to 1.11 billion yuan.

-- Public donations reached 877 million yuan (125 million US dollars) in both cash and goods as of 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

-- A total of 47,813 soldiers, armed police and paramilitary personnel have been dispatched for disaster relief work and another 30,000 personnel will be sent to join the rescue efforts, military sources said. Enditem

-- The People's Liberation Army (PLA) had delivered 33.3 tons of disaster relief goods to Wenchuan County and neighboring towns in quake-stricken as of 8 PM on Wednesday.

Another five tons of disaster relief materials have been airdropped into Mianzhu City for the first time by an air force transporter Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)