Parents are waiting at schools destroyed by the devastating Chinese earthquake hoping their children will be pulled from the debris but hope is fading.
There are scattered success stories around Sichuan province but as time goes on they will be fewer.
The government estimated death toll rose Thursday to around 20,000 but could eventually top 50,000, Xinhua reported.
In Beichuan, parents of middle-school students waited, hoping recovery teams would pull their children alive from the rubble of a middle school but search teams Thursday could only recover bodies.
"There are teenagers wearing jeans and gym shoes and their bodies are twisted," CNN's John Vause said, reporting from just outside the school. "The expression on one girl's face was just pain -- she was dead." 
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All About China • U.S. National Earthquake Information Center • Disaster Relief
