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Woman rescued after nine days trapped in quake hit tunnel

A Chinese news agency says a woman has been rescued nine days after being trapped in a tunnel at a hydropower plant by the massive earthquake which hit Sichuan province.

Xinhua News Agency said she was trapped in the tunnel in Hongbai. It did not immediately give any other details.

The country's government also raised the confirmed death toll from the May 12 earthquake to more than 41,000 people. Hers is the only rescue reported in the last 24 hours.

The woman was found in a water diversion tunnel at the Jinhe Hydropower Plant in Hongbai town in Sichuan province, the agency reported.

Identified as Zeng Changhui, her age was not known. She was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, Xinhua reported. Dr Pu Jinhui said she suffered multiple fractures in her right arm, ribs and lower back, but that her injuries were not life-threatening, according to the report.

Some signs of normality have returned to the quake-hit area, as more schools reopened, but rain and a lack of tents underscored the massive task facing the government in sheltering millions left homeless.

The State Council, China's cabinet, said in a statement that the country's top anti-corruption office will deal sternly with officials who misuse or delay distribution of relief money.

China has begun moving some of the injured to other provinces for treatment. More than 200 have arrived in southern Guangzhou province, where local patients gave up their hospital rooms to make space, state TV reported.

The confirmed death toll from the earthquake rose to 41,353, Chinese government spokesman Guo Weimin said. Another 32,666 remained missing. The government has previously said the final deaths will surpass 50,000.

Meanwhile, the Tibetan government-in-exile called for a temporary stop to anti-China protests "to express our solidarity" to quake victims. The quake area is near Tibetan parts of China that saw unrest earlier this year when authorities cracked down on anti-government riots.