AOL

A school flattened by falling rocks in China's Sichuan province

Rescuers held out hope of finding more survivors, nearly five days after a powerful earthquake ravaged China's Sichuan province, as authorities prepared for the daunting task of housing and feeding the millions left homeless.

Buoyed by finding a girl alive after 100 hours trapped in a school following Monday's 7.9-magnitude quake, President Hu Jintao said they would not give up hope of finding others.

Officials have said the earthquake's final death toll could reach 50,000.

More than a day past what experts call the critical three-day window for finding survivors, rescuers pulled to safety a 10-year-old girl who had been trapped under her collapsed primary school for 100 hours, China Central Television reported.

With the help of a crane, dozens of workers removed the fourth grader from the rubble of Yingxiu Central Elementary School in Wenchuan after working all day. A dozen pupils had been rescued from the school, CCTV said.

The girl's condition was not known. CCTV said medical teams were treating the girl, who looked like a dusty rag doll when she was pulled out of the wreckage, missing a shoe and with a white cloth tied over her face to protect her from the blinding light after being in darkness for so long.

Rescue teams recovered 163 people alive on Friday, CCTV said.

Mr Hu, who arrived in Sichuan on Friday, was shown on television comforting survivors and encouraging soldiers who were carrying out rescue work.

The vast majority of survivors are rescued in the first 24 hours after a disaster, with the chances of survival dropping as each day passes, said Dr Irving Jacoby of the University of California.

A person trapped but uninjured could survive for a week or even 10 days, and in extreme circumstances two weeks or more, he said.