Beijing, May 16: China on Friday allowed foreign teams to join efforts to rescue thousands of trapped people as authorities pinned hopes on “more miracles” after four persons were pulled out of the rubble, nearly 100 hours after the country was hit by a massive earthquake that left 50,000 dead. Among the survivors was a child found by rescuers from the rubble of a school in the quake-devastated town of Beichuan, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Nearly 7,000 schools were destroyed by the tremor measuring 7.9 on Richter scale, prompting the government to launch an investigation. More than 4,400 tremors have been recorded and more aftershocks are likely in its epicentre, Wenchuan county, a government scientist said. The rescuers could hear more voices calling for help in the debris and were “expecting more miracles,” Xinhua reported.

Tens of thousands of survivors spent their fourth night under tarpaulins, tents or in the open as authorities romped up supply of relief materials, clearing the roads and rubble to reach the needy in the heart of the quake-pummelled areas. Racing against time, China accepted offers from Russia, South Korea, Singapore and to send their rescue teams to the devastated areas as the first foreign rescuers from Japan entered the area early on Friday.

“It is still within the critical period for saving lives, and we won’t give up if there is even the slightest hope of finding more survivors,” Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told Chinese media while travelling on a train as he vowed to continue with the rescue efforts. He said the relief work had been “orderly, forceful and effective” in the face of “the  biggest and most destructive natural disaster since new China was founded in 1949.”Mr Wen said the quake was even more powerful than the Tangshan earthquake in 1976 in northern Hebei Province which claimed about 240,000 lives three decades ago.