China raised the number of dead or missing from a devastating earthquake to more than 70,000 on Tuesday, as rescuers found another survivor eight days after the huge tremor hit.A government statement said the number killed had now topped 40,000, and state news agency Xinhua reported that a further 32,000 were missing.
Authorities had previously said they expected the final death toll to exceed 50,000. More than 247,000 were injured.
But could it have been avoided? While no one could have stopped the earth from quaking, there were warnings that were ignored that could have saved lives:
The same night of Sichuan's May 12 earthquake, Chinese scientist Li Shihui revealed on his blog that Chinese seismologist Geng Qingguo accurately predicted the quake and warned authorities about the disaster in late April. According to Li, Geng's report was ignored by Chinese authorities.
