Three pandas missing in China quake: state media
BEIJING (AFP) — At least three pandas remain unaccounted for after China's devastating earthquake, which killed five people working at a famous park for the endangered animals, state media said Sunday.
The news contradicts early reports that more than 80 giant pandas at the Wolong breeding centre were confirmed safe after last week's quake, which killed an estimated 50,000 people.
Three pandas were missing at the Wolong reserve, where 14 of 32 homes for the bears were destroyed, the state-run Xinhua news agency said, quoting local officials.
It said authorities were still trying to assess the status of the more than 1,590 pandas that live in the wild in the earthquake-hit region.
Badly needed bamboo, apples and veterinary supplies arrived Saturday night at Wolong, Xinhua said.
Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, two pandas offered by Beijing as a goodwill gift to Taiwan, are both safe, Xinhua said. China considers Taiwan, where the country's defeated nationalists fled in 1949 after civil war, to be part of its territory awaiting reunification.
A group of 12 American tourists were stranded at the Wolong breeding ground for nearly three days after the earthquake -- and said they watched the pandas cope with the earthquake.
"It was surreal. I was spinning around, trying to gain my footing, and as I looked up, I saw a panda trying to do the same thing," Robert Litwak, 55, earlier told AFP.
