BEICHUAN, CHINA—The search for survivors in the rubble of China’s powerful earthquake grew bleak on Sunday, with rescuers in some areas no longer listening for trapped victims.

There were a few tales of rescues even six days after the 7.9-magnitude in central China. But the focus of efforts in the disaster zone appeared to shift to clearing corpses from shattered buildings as the number of confirmed dead rose to 32,477.

Another 220,109 people suffered injuries, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The government has said it expected the final death toll will surpass 50,000.

People ran into the streets as a strong aftershock—measured by the US Geological Survey at magnitude 5.7—shook the area early Sunday for 45 seconds.

Few hopeful relatives were seen in Beichuan, which lies near the quake’s epicenter, where several dozen corpses in blue body bags lay in a street. Soldiers regularly pulled more dead from the wreckage.

‘Limbs broken off’

Wu Hai, a rescue team leader who came from neighboring Yunnan province, said bodies were in the middle stages of decomposition and “many of the limbs are broken off.”

“There are definitely many more here. Locals here said several thousands have been buried here,” he said.

A “slightly bruised” man was pulled out alive from a collapsed hospital on Sunday after being trapped for 139 hours, Xinhua reported. Experts say buried earthquake survivors can live a week or more, depending on factors including the temperature and whether they have water to drink.

A Malaysian rescue team in the town of Muyu, further north, sifted slowly and methodically through the wreckage. However, the rescuers were not tapping on the debris in hopes that survivors would hear and respond as other crews had done earlier. The Malaysians were instead using giant cutters to split steel girders.

Dozens of students were buried in new graves dotting a green hillside overlooking the rubble, the small mounds of dirt failing to block the pungent smell of decay wafting from the ground. Most graves were unmarked, although several had wooden markers with names scribbled on them.

‘Why is life so bitter?’

Zhou Bencen, 36, said he raced to the town’s middle school after the earthquake, where relatives who arrived earlier had dug out the body of his 13-year-old daughter, Zhou Xiao, who was crushed on the first floor.

Zhou cradled his wife in his arms, holding her hand and stroking her back while she sobbed hysterically. “Oh God, oh God, why is life so bitter?” Liao Jinju wailed. The couple’s 9-year-old son survived.

The World Health Organization said conditions for homeless survivors were ripe for outbreaks of disease and called for quick action to supply clean water and proper hygiene facilities.

“Ensuring supply of food and safe drinking water and trying to restore good sanitation are critical because these are basic transmission routes for communicable diseases,” said Hans Troedsson, WHO’s representative to China.

Flood threats ease

Flood threats from rivers blocked by landslides from the quake appeared to have eased after three waterways near the epicenter overflowed with no problems, Xinhua said. County officials diverted released water as a precaution.

The quake damaged some water projects, such as reservoirs and hydroelectric stations, but no reservoirs had burst. Worries about possible flooding had sent thousands of people fleeing the day before.

Nuclear facilities jolted by the quake were confirmed safe and troops were sent to reinforce security there, Air Force Maj. Gen. Ma Jian, deputy chief of operations for the military’s General Staff Headquarters, told reporters in Beijing.

China has a research reactor, two nuclear fuel production sites and two atomic weapons sites in Sichuan province, all located 60-145 kilometers from the epicenter.

Remote villages

Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged rescue teams to reach remote villages battered by the earthquake where the level of damage remained unknown.

A group of about 15 people who surrounded an Associated Press reporter at a gasoline station in Mianyang city on Sunday, appealing for help for their village, Xiushui.

“The government is doing nothing to help us,” said one man, who identified himself only by his surname. “If I gave you my complete name, the government would track me down.”

Chen did not say how many people lived there. He handed over a note signed “by the people of Xiushui,” reading: “Please go to our village of Xiushui to cover the situation. The government is doing nothing to help us get water or housing.”