MORE than 50 tourists were confirmed dead Thursday in Jiuzhaigou, a tourist attraction in Southwest China's quake-hit Sichuan Province, local officials said.

The victims included 35 people in a coach buried under a landslide.

The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said Thursday that 893 overseas tourists were stranded in the quake-hit regions as of 7:00 p.m. Wednesday.

The number of domestic tourists stranded was 2,601.

An estimated 10,386 tourists had been"affected" by the quake, the CNTA said, citing statistics from tourism groups in Sichuan and tourism bureaus around the country.

A few tourists were still out of touch and authorities were trying to contact them, said the CNTA.

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

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