Nearly 900 trapped at Chinese middle school

[Gunny]

JUYUAN, China (AP) -- Juyuan Middle School students were settling in to afternoon arts and humanities classes when their four-story classroom building collapsed, setting off a wave of tragedy and disbelief that was only beginning to sink in 24 hours later.

The grief unleashed by Monday's magnitude-7.9 earthquake was etched across Juyuan, a farming and manufacturing town perched in the foothills of the Tibetan highlands. As rescue teams sifted through the wreckage for survivors, worried and sometimes wailing parents looked on in a cold, steady drizzle Tuesday.

"You tell us to wait. We can't wait anymore. We must have some information," a woman pleaded with soldiers at the edge of what was left of the school. Troops lined two deep kept the emotional family members away from the teams working with cranes and hand tools.

All but a handful of the more than 900 upper-class students were believed trapped under the slabs of cement, bricks, tile and twisted cables. Only one survivor has been found, a girl pulled free by a crack rescue team and whose name has not been released.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/13/china.school.ap/index.html