The Sichuan provincial government said that the province's death toll from earthquake had risen to 39,577 as of 4 p.m., Tuesday, and called for urgent aid of tents for millions of homeless.

Li Chengyun, vice governor of Sichuan Province, told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that another 236,359 people had been injured, 60,026 people rescued from earthquake debris and close to 4.85 million people relocated.

The official called for urgent aid of tents, "the quake zones need more than 3 million tents ... if the public wants to donate, please donate tents."

So far 143,600 tents have been sent to quake-hit areas in Sichuan, according to Li.

Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Jiang Li also reiterated the call for tents on Tuesday, saying an estimated 5 million people had been left homeless by the May 12 earthquake. The central government had allocated 280,000 tents to the quake-devastated areas nationwide, which was far from enough, Jiang said. The Civil Affairs Ministry had ordered another 700,000 tents from factories.

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2008)