Thousands of victims buried or missing after China’s worst earthquake in three decades, where the death toll soared to more than 12,000 people in the hardest-hit province alone (12,000 is the latest figure released by Chinese government on May 13, 2008.). According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the death toll exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan province alone, and 18,645 were still buried in debris in the city of Mianyang, near the epicenter of Monday’s massive, 7.9-magnitude quake. However, we would expect the numbers of casualties to rise due to the remoteness of the areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.

The Red Cross Society of China is calling for donations for victims of the Sichuan earthquake. As the transportation in the disaster hitting area is not smooth, Red Cross Society of China is mainly collecting monetary donations right now. For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province. The Red Cross Society of China has published a public hotline and bank account information to receive worldwide donations.

Account Name: Red Cross Society of China

For those who want to donate in RMB: you can send money to the RMB account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch below: 0200001009014413252

For those who want to donate in foreign currency, you can send money to the foreign currency account at the CITIC Bank branch below: 7112111482600000209

Hotline: (8610)6513999

You can also donate online at the Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn.

More pictures about this earthquake can be found at usatoday.com.