The powerful quake that hit southwest China one year ago left 5335 students dead or missing in Sichuan province, an official said on Thursday, the first time the government has given such a tally.

The 12 May quake also left another 546 students disabled there, Tu Wentao, head of the Sichuan province education department, told a press conference in the provincial capital, Chengdu.

The figures are highly sensitive because many parents of children who died say school buildings were shoddily constructed and collapsed too easily when the 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck.

In many cases, adjacent structures stood firm.

State media has said previously 14 000 schools were damaged by the quake, with about 7000 collapsing entirely.

Estimates of the numbers of students and teachers killed had earlier been put at around 9000 by the state press.

The earthquake left nearly 87 000 people dead or missing, injured 375 000 and made more than five million homeless, according to previous official estimates.

"These numbers were reached through legal methods. We have wide agreement on these numbers," Tu added, speaking as part of government efforts to mark Tuesday's one-year quake anniversary.

The schools issue remains perhaps the most sensitive aspect of the disaster for the government, whose propaganda machine otherwise seized on the quake as an example of the nation overcoming adversity under Communist Party leadership.

Angry parents of dead children staged a number of protests after the quake, alleging that corruption resulted in school walls that were like "tofu".

Police eventually sealed off school ruins and barred domestic and foreign media reporting on the subject.

Activists attempting to collect unofficial tallies of the number of students killed have reported police harassment and detentions.

Local residents later said police intimidation and cash payments had largely quelled the anger.

AFP

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