AN XIAN, China - China began airlifting aid to the areas worst hit by a massive earthquake Wednesday, while state media reported several thousand deaths near the epicenter that accounted for 80 percent of one town's population. The new figures appeared certain to push the death toll well beyond the reported 12,000.

The official Xinhua News Agency said 7,700 people died in Yingxiu town, near the epicenter of Monday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

It was unclear if the new figure was in addition to the previously reported death toll of more than 12,000.

If the deaths from Yingxiu have not already been folded in, the toll could be as high as 20,000. It could continue to rise even higher as rescuers have still not reached other towns in Wenchuan, Xinhua said.

Government officials told Xinhua rescuers who hiked into the Wenchuan county town on Wednesday found it "much worse than expected." Of the only 2,300 had survived, and 1,000 of them were badly hurt.

Xinhua said the survivors in Yingxiu "desperately needed medical help, food and water."

The highway linking Wenchuan county to Dujiangyan city was still cut off Wednesday, nearly 48 hours after the quake.

But as the weather cleared after a day of rain, a fleet of military helicopters was seen flying north over Dujiangyan. Xinhua reported that two army helicopters airdropped food, drinking water and medicine to Yingxiu, with three more en route.

Elsewhere in the area north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, relatives cried over bodies of loved one.

In Hanwang, about 60 bodies wrapped in plastic were laid out as sobbing relatives walked among them. Feet and hands were sticking through the plastic wrapped around some of the bodies.

Some were covered with tree branches or flowers, and relatives burned paper money to be used in the afterlife.

As people mourned, rescue workers in blue uniforms continued to bring out bodies they have had been keeping in the Dongqi sports arena. It was unclear whether the corpses were from Hanwang or elsewhere.

Most of the buildings in Hanwang, which is surrounded by mountains, had been left in twisted piles by the quake, and cranes were tearing down what was left of any buildings still standing.

Farther north in An Xian, on the road to Beichuan, a hard-hit area on the edge of the quake's epicenter, a group of survivors huddled by the road in a makeshift tent to protect them from the rain.

Government buses have carried some survivors out of Beichuan, but Li Zizhong, a 38-year-old farmer, said he had not heard from his relatives there yet.

"Who knows what happened to them," Li said. "All we need is a little something to eat. I'm just happy to be alive."

Li and a friend, Zhang Mingfu, 44, had built a wood and plastic shelter with a straw floor where about 30 family members spent the night. Their destroyed homes were in the background.

"I feel lucky. It's the people in the mountains that we are worrying about, they are our relatives," Zhang said.

Authorities had blocked the road to Beichuan to regular traffic to allow rescue vehicles access.

Premier Wen Jiabao stopped Wednesday at a school in Beichuan county where two classroom buildings collapsed in the earthquake. The school with 2,000 students sustained "heavy casualties," broadcaster China Central Television reported.

"The party and the government are concerned about you. Your pain is our pain," Wen told earthquake victims who were living in Red Cross tents, his arms wrapped around two little girls and a somber-faced woman.

China also reported Wednesday that a 3-year-old Taiwanese boy was among the victims. Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Li Weiyi said two other Taiwanese were hurt in the quake.

Meanwhile, Mianyang, an industrial city of 700,000 people and home to the headquarters of China's nuclear weapons design industry, had turned into a thronging refugee camp.

The devastation and ramped-up rescue across a large, heavily populated region of farms and factory towns strained local governments. Food dwindled on the shelves of the few stores that remained open. Gasoline was scarce, with long lines outside some stations and pumps marked "empty."

Price gouging was evident at some store that were open. A package of instant noodles normally selling for 35 cents now costs $1.15.

The government's high-gear response aimed to reassure Chinese while showing the world it was capable of handling the disaster and was ready for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics in Beijing. Although the government said it welcomed outside aid, officials said it would accept only money and supplies, not foreign personnel.

Bowing to public calls, Beijing Olympics organizers scaled down the boisterous ongoing torch relay, with Wednesday's leg in the southeastern city of Ruijin beginning with a minute of silence. The torch is scheduled to arrive in quake-hit areas next month.