Death toll in China quake rises to 589

The Yunnan Provincial government said more than 2,400 people have been injured in the quake in the mountainous farming region of Ludian county, the country’s deadliest in four years.

In this photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, rescuers transfer a baby in the quake-hit Longquan village of Ludian county, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014. About 10,000 troops used pickaxes and backhoes to clear roads and dig residents from collapsed homes Tuesday after an earthquake in southwest China that killed hundreds of people. Groups of volunteers, meanwhile, used their bare hands. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Xing Guangli) NO SALES

The death toll in southern China’s earthquake rose to 589 on Wednesday as search and rescue teams worked to clear debris from isolated mountain communities struck by the disaster.

The Yunnan Provincial government said more than 2,400 people have been injured in Sunday’s quake in the mountainous Yunnan farming region of Ludian county, the country’s deadliest in four years.

Thousands of troops and hundreds of volunteers have rushed to the site to dig out possible survivors from the debris, but landslides and heavy rains have complicated rescue efforts.

The quake struck an area of steep hills and narrow roads that are not well suited to all the traffic of the massive relief effort.

Roads into the hardest-hit town of Longtou were clogged on Wednesday with rescue vehicles, ambulances and military jeeps along with residents and volunteers on foot.

The region is prone to earthquakes. In 1970, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Yunnan killed at least 15,000 people. In September 2012, a series of quakes killed 81 people.

In May 2008, a powerful quake in Sichuan province left nearly 90,000 people dead.