CHENGDU, Southwest China, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Gou Yiguo can't remember how many lives he saved from the earthquake rubble which used to be Beichuan Middle School.

　　"I pulled out a lot of students, alive or dead, from the rubble," said the PE teacher in a telephone interview with Xinhua."I just kept pulling and pulling. That was horrible."

　　Gou, who was selected early this year as the only Olympic torchbearer from Beichuan County of Mianyang City, one of the worst-hit areas of the deadly May 12 earthquake, recounted the horror between sobs.

　　A strong wave threw the 33-year-old Gou and his wife out of the open door of their first-floor flat in Beichuan Middle School when the 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck southwest China's Sichuan Province.

　　"I saw the six-story school building crumpled like a house of cards and I heard screams and cries for help," Gou recalled.

　　"My students were all there. I taught eight sophomore classes. My basketball team and athletics team were all there.

　　"I ran to the leveled building and shouted: 'I'm Teacher Gou. Don't panic, children. I will get you out.'"

　　Gou had pulled students from the rubble with bare hands until the rescue team arrived one hour later.

　　"My wife later grabbed me away to check my son in a nearby kindergarten. When I got there, my poor 3-year-old son had stopped breathing," Gou choked on the phone.

　　After a long pause, Gou said he returned to the flattened school.

　　"I shouted encouragement to the trapped students for the whole night: 'Kids, I'm Teacher Gou. The rescue team will get you out. Hang on there!'"

　　In the first two days after the earthquake, as Gou recalled, occasional cries from the school ruins could be heard, but as time went by, the cries lowered to whispers and finally died out.

　　The death toll from China's most deadly earthquake in decades hit 67,183 as of midday Tuesday, with 361,822 injured and 20,790 missing.

　　Gou's sister's family of three were killed in a mudslide causedby the quake and his parents, who were tilling the field when the disaster hit, were unhurt.

　　Local officials have promised a special investigation into the collapse of Beichuan Middle School, where up to 1,300 children andteachers died.

　　The temblor left at least 14,538 dead and 3,397 missing in Beichuan, but the most lamented victims have been children of the middle school who were crushed to death in class.

　　"We will preserve all the buildings, whether collapsed or not, for experts to investigate," Zuo Daifu, Mianyang vice mayor, has promised.

　　More than 500 surviving students of Beichuan Middle School, resumed classes in Mianyang City a week after the catastrophic quake.

　　"Many of the surviving students lost their parents. I will lovethem as much as I loved my son. I will play ball games with them. I will teach them how to get fit and healthy. I hope sports will help them heal wounds and overcome trauma," said Gou.