Rescue workers are still discovering survivors three days after a deadly earthquake hit China's northwest region.

The death toll From Wednesday's 6.9 magnitude quake has soared to nearly 800 after it toppled hundreds of homes, schools and Tibetan monasteries.

China's state television showed footage of soldiers pulling out a young girl from piles of debris of a collapsed building. They cleared wall fragments and dug through the rubble with their bare hands and managed to pull out the girl. They also saved the girl's mother 40 minutes later.

With temperatures dropping well below freezing at night there is little chance of anyone still surviving under collapsed buildings in and around Gyegu, where most of Yushu county's 100,000 people reside.

At least 294 people are listed as missing, and 1,176 as "seriously injured".