Chinese teams exploded the last rocks on a road into the epicentre of Monday's massive earthquake, state media said Thursday, finally allowing rescuers to bring help to survivors by land.
The road from Lixian County, just west of Wenchuan County, the epicentre, was repaired at 9:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Thursday, Xinhua news agency said.
Rescuers worked non-stop for two days to clear the road, China's central television said, quoting Transport Ministry spokesman He Jianzhong.
The destruction in remote Wenchuan is massive, with whole mountainsides sheared off, roads ripped apart and building after building razed.
The county had so far remained cut off by land, with relief teams relying on air drops from helicopters to reach needy survivors inside the area.
State media reported earlier that Chinese teams had reopened two roads into the worst-hit areas of Sichuan province.
Workers have repaired a road leading up to the border of Wenchuan county, but have not yet managed to clear the way to enter the area.
Xinhua also said workers had cleared a highway from the city of Mianyang to another badly hit county, Beichuan, allowing heavy machinery to come in.
China has mobilised tens of thousands of troops to handle the aftermath of the country's worst earthquake in three decades, with the national quake relief headquarters saying more than 50,000 people had likely died in the tremor.
