NIGHT OPERATION: Rescuers search for survivors in the rubbles at a polytechnic school in Yushu, Qinghai Province, on April 14 (DING LIN)

HELP COMMITMENT: Vice Premier Hui Liangyu (second left) visits survivors and doctors at a temporary hospital in Yushu on April 14 (DING LIN)

CHILLY NIGHT: Children sleep in the open air during the first post-quake night before tents were set up (DING LIN)

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province at 7:49 a.m. on April 14.

The death toll of the earthquake had risen to 589 at 2 a.m. on April 15, with more than 8,000 people injured, said the local quake-relief headquarters. It is estimated more than 100,000 households in the quake-affected area will need to be relocated.

Rescuers and relief supplies from all over the country, including the Central Government's first allocation of 200 million yuan ($34,000), are arriving at Yushu.

Yushu, covering 267,000 square km, has a population of more than 252,700 people of whom 97 percent are Tibetans, and 21,700 are farmers and herdsmen.