May 14, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 8, 1429

BEIJING, May 13: More than 80 giant pandas at China’s most famous panda park, the Wolong centre, were safe and well following a huge earthquake that struck the area, state press said on Tuesday.

The endangered species -- and diplomatic heavyweights -- appeared to have escaped the worst of the quake, which officials say has left tens of thousands of people dead, missing or buried under rubble.

A total of 86 giant pandas at the centre did not sustain injuries following a 7.9-magnitude quake that hit the southwest province of Sichuan, where the centre is located, Xinhua news agency said.

Previous media reports had put the number of pandas in the centre at 130, suggesting some of the endangered animals may still be unaccounted for.

But Xinhua’s report appeared to suggest that all the pandas held in captivity in the research and breeding centre at Wolong were alive and well.

The news agency said all 144 pandas in the three research bases in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, Wolong and the northern city of Xi’an — all affected by the earthquake — were unharmed.

The fate of the 1,590 animals that live in the wild, however, was unknown, the news agency said.—AFP