Andy Wong / AP Rescue workers search for survivors amid the debris of collapsed buildings in Beichuan, in southwest China's Sichuan province, on Friday.

BEICHUAN, China — Piles of broken concrete rise seven stories high, and a few buildings stand askew, knocked at odd angles. People cry out the names of missing relatives and rescue workers shout, "Is anyone there? Is anyone there?"

On Friday, amid the little that is left of the town of Beichuan, the answers came in faint taps on concrete or muffled cries.

In response to one such muffled call, five volunteers dug with their hands and shovels for more than four hours, freeing a middle-aged woman from a crumpled apartment building.

The woman, who was too weak to speak, was followed by another — and another. In all, 33 people were found, the government said, and they were rushed away on stretchers — bruised, bleeding and covered in dust — about 100 hours after the massive quake struck central China.

The rescues brought momentary relief to the remote mountain town that collapsed on itself. Many of those left in Beichuan or those who came back to search for lost family member have steeled themselves for the deaths of their loved ones.

"I've called her countless times, but there's no answer. Now the phone is dead," said Zhang Mingfeng, who traveled from the nearby city of Jiangyou to look for her 39-year-old sister, who was working at Beichuan's Commerce Bureau when Monday's quake struck. The office is now a heap of brick and twisted metal.

"My cousins and I have spent the last few days crying," said Zhang, her eyes tearing as she surveyed the ruins. "The last time we saw her was Sunday, when we had lunch together. It was family time."

Beichuan, set deep in a verdant valley 100 miles north of Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu, had a population of about 30,000 before the quake. It is surrounded by small coal and gold mines and tea plantations. Rare pandas live in its forest-clad hills.

Among the hardest hit by the quake, Beichuan now looks like a pile of matchsticks. Mounds of debris stand seven stories high, with smoke plumes rising from some of the wreckage. Landslides raked gigantic gashes in the mountainsides. Roads leading into the county buckled like freeway off-ramps leading to nowhere, isolating its three larger towns and 13 hamlets and most of its 160,000 people. Some estimates by state media put the death toll for the county at 7,000. Xinhua said 3,000 were killed in the town of Beichuan alone.

On Friday, Beichuan was abuzz with activity as soldiers, police and emergency workers flooded into the disaster zone. Sirens wailed, heavy machinery whined and the acrid air smelled of smoke, rotting food and chemicals.

Dozens of people were streaming out, looking for food and shelter after being trapped for days.

"We've been terrified since the earthquake destroyed our home," said Shen Xinyong, who trekked for six hours down a mountain to Beichuan with her husband, two children and parents, hoping to reach the city of Mianyang 56 miles away.

"We've been digging the earth for our food — gourds, potatoes — anything we've planted," said Shen, 27. Dressed in jeans and a white sweater, she said the family brought little more than the clothes they were wearing because of the long journey.

Some brought more. Two men carried a wide-screen television, while one pushed an elderly woman in a wheelchair. Yet another struggled with a plastic-wrapped corpse in a wheelbarrow.

Walking through the tumble of mud and chunks of concrete, steel and glass on what's left of Beichuan's streets were hundreds of soldiers and desperate relatives searching for family, some gripping bags of food and medicine.

People scavenged the ruins for food and other usable items. In one section, six bodies covered in quilts lay on mattresses or bed frames.

"It's no use," said one volunteer as he searched fruitlessly for survivors. "This is a city of the dead."