BEIJING, CHINA: A group of 26 elderly Malaysian tourists has been missing since Monday's devastating earthquake that hit south-western Sichuan province as the death toll rose to nearly 15,000 and thousands were reported buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings and landslides.

Malaysian Consul-General in Kunming Ayauf Bachi said that while the fate of the group is still not known, there have been no reports of Malaysian casualties.

The consulate has sought the help of the Sichuan local government to trace the Malaysians, whose last known stop was in Maoxian, less than 50km from the epicentre of the quake in Wenchuan county.

"The Chinese authorities formed a special team this morning to look for foreign tourists. We are working with them on this," he told Bernama.

He said the consulate was contacted on Tuesday evening by Ipoh-based Golden Dragon Tours, which had arranged the trip for the group, half of whom were elderly women.

The Chengdu local agent handling the tour said the agency had alerted tourism and communications authorities in Aba county near Maoxian after it failed to contact the tourist guide accompanying the group.

"The last contact we had was around 1.30pm when the tourist guide called to say they were stopping for lunch at the Guibinlou restaurant in Maoxian," said Zhang Wenxia of the Chengdu Overseas Tourist Corporation.

In IPOH, Golden Dragon Tours sales and tour manager Andy Kong Kam Hong confirmed they had lost contact with the group since the earthquake struck the province on Monday, reports CHAN LI LEEN.

"We have lost all contact with them and the hotel they were staying in as all phone lines there are down. We do not know whether they are safe," he said.

Kong said that according to the group's travel itinerary, they were supposed to have landed in the Jiuzhaigou highlands at about 1pm on Monday and should have been having lunch in Miaoxian at the time of the quake.

"They should be safer if they had reached Maoxian," Kong said, adding that the group was to be on Mount Emei yesterday.

However, no one in the group or their Malaysian guide has contacted the agency or family members so far.

A Chinese guide and driver, he said, should have been with the tour group, whose members were mostly in their 50s with the oldest in her 90s.

"Our agency is currently liaising with Malaysian (Consul-General in Kunming) and Chinese authorities in China," he said, adding that the tour group left for China on May 9 and was due to return tomorrow.

The agency declined to release the names of the 26 missing Malaysians or the contact numbers of their families.

A Wisma Putra official in Putrajaya confirmed yesterday that they had not managed to reach any of the 26 people.

"As of today (Wednesday), rescue workers are trying to get into Maoxian but are facing difficulties because the access roads have been cut off. The travel agency from Ipoh think they might be there," said an officer.

The officer, who had earlier said they had managed to contact the group, said information was still trickling in from the province.

"We now know there were three Malaysian groups in the area. One group of 11 people is confirmed safe as are two other individuals.

"However, the group from Ipoh is still not reachable," he added. -The Star