Thousands dead' in Chinese quake

Source:
BBCNews

Between 3,000 and 5,000 people may have been killed by an earthquake measuring 7.8 in just one county of south-western China's Sichuan province, reports say.

Some 10,000 people are also feared to have been injured in Beichuan county.

Desperate efforts are under way to find survivors. One school that collapsed has buried an estimated 900 students.

President Hu Jintao has urged "all-out" efforts to rescue victims of the quake, which hit 92km (57 miles) from Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital.

Cries for help

There are harrowing reports from the scene of the school collapse in Dujiangyan city - about 100km (60 miles) from the epicentre.

Teenagers buried beneath the rubble of the three-storey Juyuan Middle School building were struggling to break free, while others were crying out for help, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Parents were watching as cranes excavated the site. Villagers rushed to help with the rescue.

Two girls said they escaped because they had "run faster than others".

Dozens of aftershocks have been reported since the quake, which was the strongest to hit Sichuan province in more than 30 years, Xinhua reports.

State television said the quake had not caused major damage to Chengdu, which has a population of more than 10 million people, or to the nearby Three Gorges Dam.

Troops and helicopters have been sent to the stricken area to help with relief work.

The BBC's Quentin Somerville says the Chinese army has a good record of mobilising and getting people to safety.

He also says news is coming through very fast from the affected area - it is one of the most open and speedy responses to an emergency he has ever seen from Chinese state media.

The quake was felt as far away as Beijing, he says, meaning millions of people will feel connected to the disaster and will be watching TV screens closely to see how the government responds.

China: 5,000 feared dead in quake

Source:
CNN

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Up to 5,000 people are feared to have been killed by Monday's powerful earthquake in just one affected region of central China, the Chinese government said.

State-run news agency Xinhua said authorities in Sichuan Province believe that many people may have died, and about 10,000 people are believed to be injured, in Beichuan County, in the northeastern part of the province.

The Sichuan provincial disaster relief headquarters said 80 percent of the buildings collapsed in the Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County after the 7.8-magnitude quake, Xinhua reported.

Several hundred students are also feared to be buried in collapsed school buildings, the agency said.

The quake was "felt in most parts of China," Xinhua reported, with the confirmed casualties in the provinces and municipality of Sichuan, Gansu, Chongqing and Yunnan.

Xinhua said several schools collapsed, at least partially, in the quake. At one, as many as 900 students were feared buried.

"Some buried teenagers were struggling to break loose from underneath the ruins while others were crying out for help," Xinhua reported.

"Grieved parents watched as five cranes were excavating at the site and an ambulance was waiting."

One person was killed in Santai County, in the city of Mianyang, when a water tower fell, the news agency reported.

Another person was killed when a water tower fell in the city of Mianyang, the news agency reported.

A provincial government spokesman said they feared more dead and injured in collapsed houses in Dujiangyan City in Wenchuan County, Xinhua reported.

The news agency also quoted a driver for the seismological bureau saying he saw "rows of houses collapsed" in Dujiangyan.

Chinese President Hu Jintao immediately ordered an all-out effort to help victims of the earthquakes, Xinhua reported. It said Premier Wen Jiabao would go there to direct the rescue work. VideoSee workers in Chengdu hiding under their desks during the quake. »

Bonnie Thie, the country director the Peace Corps, was on a university campus in Chengdu about 100 km from the epicenter, in the eastern part of China's Sichuan province, when the first quake hit.

"You could see the ground shaking," Thie told CNN.

The shaking "went on for what seemed like a very long time," she said.

"This is a very dangerous earthquake," said Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake had the potential to cause major damage because of its strength and proximity to major population centers, he said. Read an explanation about earthquakes. »

In addition, the earthquake was relatively shallow, Presgrave said, and those kinds of quakes tend to do more damage near the epicenter than deeper ones.

An earthquake with 7.5 magnitude in the northern Chinese city of Tangshan killed 255,000 people in 1976 -- the greatest death toll from an earthquake in the last four centuries and the second greatest in recorded history, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Tangshan is roughly 1,600 km from Chengdu, the nearest major city to the epicenter of Monday's quake.

After the first quake struck Monday, the ground shook as far away as Beijing, which is 1,500 km from the epicenter.

They felt "a very quiet rolling sensation" that lasted for about a minute, according to CNN correspondent John Vause.

"Our building began to sway," he said.

Thousands of people were evacuated from Beijing high-rises immediately after the earthquake.

At least six more earthquakes -- measuring between 4.0 and 6.0 magnitudes -- happened nearby over the three hours after the initial quake at at 2:28 p.m. local time (0728 GMT), the USGS reported.

A spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee said no Olympic venues were affected by the earthquake. The massive Three Gorges Dam -- roughly 600 km east of the epicenter -- was not damaged, a spokesman said.

The earthquake was also felt in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and as far away as Hanoi, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Hong Kong-based Mandarin-language channel Phoenix TV.

yeah you are right im here in shaanxi provence... the quake was soo powerfu..l

more than 50,000 people died which has already been proved.However,there are more people who died and can't be checked out their indentity.So,the numeber must be about 100,000.

Every time when i watch the TV and hear the news reported,i can't help myself crying,i can't control my tears,so sad and so hard to accept,now i can competely understand why Chines people love peace.

May God bless the Wenchuan and this small earth.

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The earth quake creates a generation gaps, as it happened in Kashmir bcz most of the victims r school students ...

Thank you, thanks for all your help.
I experienced two earthquake, one in paksitan, and the other May 12 at home. After the quake, relief materials from all over the world are transported to Sichuan province. I was deeply moved when i got to know that donated more than 20000 tents, and the medical team is dispatched toward Wenchuan county......
I can not express my feelings toward all of you with my poor English. May god bless all of us, and long live Pakistan~China friendship.

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CHINESE FRIEND

Thats really pathetic situation in China and we all must come up with brilliant ideas to cope with this situation. We must support the chineese government and help them as much as we can. Now its a need tto cut down our own unnecessary expenses and wishes. We must allocate all our services and money to support those victims. GOD BLESS THEM!