As uniformed rescue workers picked through the rubble of the school near Dujiangyan in Sichuan province, onlookers despaired any of the hundreds of students inside had survived the catastrophe, the New York Times reported.

"There's no hope for them," the newspaper quoted local resident Lu Zhiqing as saying. "There's no way anyone's still alive in there."

The report said 900 children were feared killed in the deadly collapse of the school, which was completely leveled by the quake. Not even a standing beam or fragment of a wall remained, it said.

The overall death toll from Monday's earthquake in southwestern China was raised to at least 12,000 Tuesday as a huge relief effort was under way.