Rescuers are trying their best to save people after a magnitude-6.8 earthquake jolted Luding County, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

But rainfall is expected in the region on Wednesday, making the rescue work even harder.

At least 66 people have died from the disaster, 15 are missing, and 253 are injured. Meanwhile, five people are in critical condition as of Tuesday afternoon.

A working group sent by the State Council arrived early on Tuesday to lead the rescue effort.

More than 300 base stations and 134 kilometers of optic fibers were damaged, and more than 16,000 people lost communication signals.

As of Tuesday evening, 77 base stations were fixed and electricity has been restored for nearly 22,000 families.

At least 92 people trapped in debris have been transported to safety by firefighters. They checked almost 3,000 households and are still working to find more people.

In addition to firefighters under military command, ground force soldiers from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) joined the rescue.

"Many local people cried when they saw us coming," Wei Xiaohu, one of the military rescuers, told China Media Group (CMG). "All the roads to the epicenter were cut, so we have to take assault boats and then rope climb for three hours to get to them."

"Then we used ropes – and our backs – to transport trapped people one by one to the boats," Wei added.

The mountainous terrain makes it impossible to fly helicopters, so rescuers had to carry the aid to the area manually.

More than 6,650 people, including soldiers, engineers and first-aid workers participated in the rescue.

Drones also played an important role in the rescue, providing mobile phone signals to people at the epicenter after the earthquake destroyed signal towers.

The drones also took videos of the scene to help rescuers plan their work.

The injured were transported to a temporary residence center to get basic treatment.

Sixty-five injured people were residing in the People's Hospital of the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on Tuesday. They are said to be in stable condition.

Another eight people with more severe injuries were transported to bigger hospitals in Chengdu City, the provincial capital.