A strong earthquake hit a remote mountainous area of China Wednesday, killing 400 people and injuring thousands as it toppled mud-and-wood houses and at least one school, burying many in rubble.
 |
| In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, building blocks are scattered near a destroyed building after an earthquake at Jiegu Town, of Yushu, a Tibetan autonomous prefecture in western Qinghai Province of northwest China, on Wednesday, April 14, 2010. |
Among the dead were children trapped under the ruins of school buildings when the quake measuring at least 6.9 rocked a predominantly Tibetan region in the northwest province of Qinghai shortly before classes started.
About 10,000 people were injured in the quake, which also disrupted telecommunications, knocked out electricity, toppled temples and triggered landslides, hampering rescue efforts in the high-altitude zone.
Rescuers were working with their bare hands to clear debris and find survivors in Yushu prefecture, the epicentre of the latest killer quake in China.
President Hu Jintao called for all-out efforts to save as many people as possible, while the Pope Benedict XVI called for "solidarity" with the victims of the disaster and Japan offered aid.
About 400 people have been confirmed dead, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting Huang Limin, a top official in Yushu, a sparsely populated area where which lies around 800 kilometres from the provincial capital.
"The injured are everywhere in the street, a lot of people are bleeding from head wounds," Xinhua quoted another official, identified as Zhuohuaxia, as saying from the town of Jiegu, seat of the Yushu government.
Meteorologists are predicting strong winds and sleet in coming days, which could create problems for rescuers, and Zhuohuaxia also said that there was a lack of tents and medical equipment.
The quake wreaked havoc on the flimsy earth and wood houses near the epicentre, which lies around 800 kilometres (500 miles) or at least 12 hours by road from the provincial capital.
Zhuohuaxia reporting more than 85 percent of houses collapsed in Jiegu.
"There are 10 people in my family and only four of us escaped. One of my relatives died. All the others are buried under the rubble," Samdrup Gyatso, 17, told Xinhua after his two-storey home crumbled.
But some sturdier concrete structures were also toppled, state television showed. Xinhua reported that a reservoir was cracked, sending workers scrambling to prevent any outflow of water.
Among the casualties were children trapped under the rubble of at least one collapsed school in Jiegu, with Xinhua reporting that at least five students had died.
"Some pupils ran out of dorms alive, and those who had not escaped in time were buried," said one teacher.
Kang Zifu, a local fire department official, was quoted as telling state television that about 20 children were buried, while at least 32 people had been pulled alive from debris in Jiegu.
Rescue teams including 700 soldiers and more than 5,000 other people are being rushed to the disaster zone, Xinhua said, while the civil affairs ministry was to send 5,000 tents, 50,000 coats and 50,000 quilts.
"We have to mainly rely on our hands to clear away the debris as we have no large excavating machines," said Shi Huajie, a paramilitary police officer working on the rescue operation. "We have no medical equipment either."
The US Geological Survey put the quake at a magnitude of 6.9 while the China Earthquake Administration measured it at 7.1.
The USGS said the quake hit at 7:49 am (2349 GMT Tuesday), at a depth of 46 kilometres. A series of aftershocks rattled the area, with magnitudes of up to 5.8, seismologists reported, adding that more were likely in the coming days.
The quake was also felt strongly in neighbouring regions, including Tibet, Xinhua said.
The remote high-altitude region is prone to earthquakes. Its economy is based heavily on farming and livestock herding by its overwhelmingly ethnic Tibetan population.
A massive 8.0-magnitude quake in May 2008 in neighbouring Sichuan province devastated a huge area of southwestern China, leaving at least 87,000 people dead or missing.
