Pictured: The Chinese earthquake widower who had to strap his wife's corpse to his back to take her to morgue

Racked by horror and heartache, there was no one to help him as he struggled to give his wife some vestige of dignity in death.

But in the chaotic aftermath of the Chinese earthquake, this man was determined she should not be left abandoned in the grim mountains of rubble.

So, with loving gentleness, he carefully strapped her body to his own - and took her to the local morgue on his motorcycle.

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Tragedy: With no one to help him, a man is forced to take his wife's body to the morgue by strapping her to his back on his moped

It was a small token of humanity in a tide of devastation that has claimed 20,000 lives, according to official figures. Up to 60,000 are still missing following the quake on Monday.

Last night, China's leaders made a rare appeal for donations of rescue equipment. Up to 80,000 troops streamed into the vast affected area of Sichaun province, while helicopters made supply drops to hundreds of thousands left homeless and cut off, without food and drinking water.

The Chinese government appealed for hammers, shovels and demolition tools in an admission that the relief effort was struggling.

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Heartbroken: Parent mourn over their child who was killed by a collapsing school in Hongbai

Help on its way: Supplies are dropped for Maoxian County near the quake's epicentre

Soldiers from the People's Liberation Army dug through the rubble of Wenchuan county with their bare hands to reach those trapped.

As rescuers scrambled to pull out remaining survivors, one child, aged about four, was taken away in a sheet acting as a makeshift stretcher. Another soldier helped a rescued child take sips of milk.

Despite the rising death toll, there have been some isolated scenes to lift the spirits. In the village of Yingxiu, an 11-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of a school 68 hours after it was destroyed.

Zhang Chunmei told how she and her classmates sang pop songs as they lay trapped and injured in the ruins.

As rescuers tried to clear the debris, she told them: "I'll just wait till you can come and save me. I'm thirsty and hungry, but happy I'm alive."

However, most of the village of 10,000 was destroyed. At the primary school, more than half its 500 students are believed to have been wiped out as they sat at their desks.

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Endless battle: Troops help injured people in Beichuan evacuate the devastated town

Shock: Residents of Beichuanservey the damage the quake caused ti a shopping street

A British group visiting a panda reserve at the epicentre of the quake were last night being cared for by UK embassy staff in Chengdu after being taken to safety by army helicopters.

The 19-strong party had become trapped following landslides. Among them were David Atkins, 64, and his wife Diane, 63, from Portchester, near Portsmouth.

Mrs Atkins was in her hotel room when the quake struck - and she mistook it for the rumbling of a train.

"Then I thought, 'It can't be a train here - this is more'," she said. "I opened the door and all the floor was moving up and my husband was running towards me panic-stricken.

"Then we looked around and everybody was running and rocks were falling. And then we looked up and the mountain just seemed to explode."

Another British survivor, Barry Jackson, said: "Suddenly we had this horrendous noise which was just ... You can't describe what it's like - it's just a huge, huge noise and the land shaking underneath you and the first thing that we all thought to do was to run."

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Trapped: Two vehicles are stranded after by landslide covering a road in Wenchuan County

Rescued: Mingyang Qixiang, three, cries from hunger after being dug out of ruins in Yingxiu

Near Shifang, where chemical plants collapsed in the earthquake, soldiers could be seen burying bodies in a mass grave.

About 50 soldiers wearing helmets and face masks were using a large mechanical shovel to dig a grave. The bodies were wrapped in white sheets.

The harrowing reports came as figures showed Monday's disaster has directly affected 10 million people in 44 counties and districts in Sichuan - equal to the population of Belgium.

North of Chengdu in Deyang, the largest town near the devastated areas of Hanwang and Mianyang, thousands of people have streamed into the city hospital since Monday, mostly with head or bone injuries.

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Defiance: Soldiers and locals walk across the damaged Zipingu dam near Dujiangyan

Struggle: A man crosses a flooded Dujiangyan bridge after rain hampered rescue efforts

Patients heavily wrapped in bandages and with cuts and bruises were huddled in canvas tents in the hospital's car park.

"Our doctors have worked continuously since Monday and people keep coming in. We have to keep strengthening our measures to keep up," said Luo Mingxuan, the Communist Party secretary of the hospital.

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Toll: Bodies of earthquake victims lie in a sportsground in Mianzhu

Laid waste: The earthquake-hit town of Yingxiu in Sichuan province

Alert by the animals

Three weeks ago, the water level in a pond 350 miles from the quake's epicentre inexplicably plunged.

Three days before disaster struck, thousands of toads appeared on the streets of Mianzhu city, where 2,000 have been reported dead. And hours before, zoo animals in Wuhan began acting bizarrely.

British tourists said moments before the quake struck the pandas they were watching at the world famous Wolong reserve became agitated.

As China deals with the aftermath, online commentators and bloggers are asking why no heed was paid to these signs. Some suggested officials could have predicted the quake earlier.

However, seismologists say it is practically impossible to predict when and where an earthquake will strike.

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