CHENGDU, China (AP) — A government warning of a major aftershock sent thousands of panicked survivors running into the darkened streets Monday night following an unprecedented display of mourning for more than 34,000 people killed in a powerful earthquake one week ago.

In shattered Sichuan province, quake-weary residents carried pillows, blankets and chairs from homes into the open or slept in cars after a statement from the National Seismology Bureau was read on television warning that there was a "rather great" chance of an aftershock measuring magnitude 6 to 7. Such jolts could cause major damage.

MIANYANG, China (AP) — Soldiers hiking over landslide-blocked roads reached the epicenter of China's devastating earthquake Tuesday, pulling bodies and a few survivors from collapsed buildings. The death toll of more than 12,000 was certain to rise as the buried were found.

Rescuers worked through a steady rain searching wrecked towns across hilly stretches of Sichuan province that were stricken by Monday's magnitude-7.9 quake, China's deadliest in three decades. Tens of thousands spent a second night outdoors, some sleeping under plastic sheeting, others bused to a stadium in the city of Mianyang, on the edge of the disaster area.

Correction Appended

It is 1963, just three years before the start of the Cultural Revolution: Everyone you know sports a Chairman Mao portrait badge, and red slogans confront you (literally and figuratively) as you walk down the street, proclaiming “crush the old world,” and “Chairman Mao will live forever in our hearts.” Your family is forcefully pointed towards the countryside and told they will be re-educated, will become farmers. You learn Mao Zedong Thought from the “little red book,” Quotations from Chairman Mao.