It is expected that the death toll will continue to rise, as low temperatures leave little hope for those who remain trapped below the rubble of their homes, schools and monasteries in the devastated capital of the county, Jiegu, known in Tibetan as Gyegu or Jyeku.

About 10,000 people were injured, some 1,000 of them seriously, while hundreds remain missing after the earthquake on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency quoted a spokesman for the relief center in the village inhabited by members of ethnic Tibetan.

Buses carrying relief workers and truckloads of food and medicine during the night progressed through the slush, sand storms and cold winds, frozen by a 1,000-kilometer road separates Yushu in the provincial capital Xining.

Local officials have talked about the urgent need for medicine and shelters in Yushu, whose 100,000 inhabitants are concentrated near the county town.

"The biggest problem now is that we lack tents, we need medical equipment, medicines and health workers," said Zhuohuaxia, local spokesman, the Xinhua news agency.

Cracks appeared in a dam near the town of Gyegu, Xinhua said, adding workers to try to stabilize the structure to prevent collapse and cause a flood in the village.

The survivors slept under quilts assembled from the rubble and remains of their former homes, or pitched tents on a flat area just outside the village.

Some spent the night in their cars to avoid the cold, state television said.

The main earthquake of magnitude 6.9 was centered in the mountains that divide the province of Qinghai to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Tibetan Plateau is often shaken by earthquakes, but the dead are usually few because not many people live in the region.

MEMORIES OF SICHUAN

For many Chinese, Yushu images reminded them of the devastating May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province, which left 80,000 dead.

Volunteers and donors exchange information via Twitter, while Tibetans and Chinese living in Beijing held an impromptu fundraiser near the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing.

In the Sichuan earthquake, the widespread collapse of schools, while other nearby buildings remained standing, generated unrest and accusations of corruption.

In the earthquake in Yushu, confirmed the deaths of 66 students and 10 teachers in three schools, Xinhua reported.

Experience in the rescue effort was evident in the speed with which the material was sent after the earthquake.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have demanded that every effort be made to rescue and sent Vice Premier Hui Liangyu to Qinghai to supervise the relief work.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who was born in Qinghai, said in a statement that is praying for the victims.