More than 50 tourists were confirmed dead on Thursday in Jiuzhaigou, a tourist attraction in southwest Chinas quake-hit Sichuan Province, local officials said.

The victims included 35 people whose coach were buried by a landslide. The two other people on the coach were badly injured, according to the emergency management office of Aba prefecture, Sichuan.

The office said as of 8 p.m. Wednesday more than 10,000 tourists were stranded in Aba, including about 2,900 in Jiuzhaigou and 7,058 in Songpan County.

Yang Changqing, secretary-general of Aba prefectural government, said 1,200 tourists were stranded in Maoxian County of Aba.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries of foreign tourists.

The local government was evacuating the stranded tourists by road and air.

(Xinhua News Agency )