Chinese authorities have revealed for the first time that around 19,000 children were killed in the earthquake in Sichuan province in May .
They say many died as a result of school building collapses.
The figure is much higher than previous unofficial estimates.
In total, the 7.9 magnitude quake killed more than 80,000 people.
BEIJING, China (CNN) — The death toll from a mud and rock slide that occured at an unlicensed mine last week in northern China has risen to 254 as rescue workers continue to recover more bodies, state-run media said Sunday.
More than 1,000 rescue workers have combed through 90 percent of the inundated area — digging through hundreds of thousands of tons of slush, mud and rocks around a mine in Xiangfen county, the China Daily newspaper said.
The county is located in the country’s Shanxi Province.
