news1130.com/news/world/article/44854--strong-quake-kills-400-in-western-china
BEIJING, China - A series of
strong earthquakes struck a
mountainous Tibetan area of
western China on Wednesday,
killing at least 400 people and
injuring more than 10,000 as
houses made of mud and wood
collapsed, officials said. Many
more people were trapped and
the toll was expected to rise.
The largest quake was recorded
by the U.S. Geological Survey as
magnitude 6.9. In the
aftermath, panicked people, many bleeding from their wounds, flooded the
streets of a Qinghai province township where most of the homes had been
flattened.
Students were reportedly buried inside several damaged schools.
Paramilitary police used shovels to dig through the rubble in the town,
footage on state television showed. Officials said excavators were not
available and with most of the roads leading to the nearest airport
damaged, equipment and rescuers would have a hard time reaching the
area. Hospitals were overwhelmed, many lacking even the most basic
supplies, and doctors were in short supply.
Downed phone lines, strong winds and frequent aftershocks also hindered
rescue efforts, said Wu Yong, commander of the local army garrison, who
said the death toll "may rise further as lots of houses collapsed."
With many people forced outside, the provincial government said it was
rushing 5,000 tents and 100,000 coats and blankets to the mountainous
region, at around 4,000 metres high and where night time temperatures
plunge below freezing.
Workers were racing to release water from a reservoir in the disaster area
where a crack had formed after the quake to prevent a flood, according to
the China Earthquake Administration.
The Wednesday quake, which struck at 7:49 p.m. ET, was centred on
Yushu county, in the southern part of Qinghai, near Tibet, with a
population of about 100,000, mostly herders and farmers.
The USGS recorded six temblors in less than three hours, all but one
registering 5.0 or higher. The China Earthquake Networks Center
measured the largest quake's magnitude at 7.1. Qinghai averages more
than five earthquakes a year of at least magnitude 5.0, according to the
official Xinhua News Agency. They normally do not cause much damage in
the sparsely populated province.
Residents fled as the ground shook, toppling houses made of mud and
wood, as well as temples, gas stations, electric poles and the top of a
Buddhist pagoda in a park, witnesses and state media said. The quake also
triggered landslides, Xinhua said.
The death toll rose to about 400 by afternoon, according to China Central
Television. Emergency official Pubucairen, who goes by only one name,
was quoted as saying that the number of injured has risen to more than
10,000. The official said rescuers were treating the injured at hospitals,
race tracks and sports stadiums.
President Hu Jintao sent a vice-premier to supervise rescue efforts and
more than 5,000 soldiers, medical workers and other rescuers were
mobilized, joining 700 soldiers already on the ground, Xinhua said. A
message of sympathy also came from the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual
leader of the often fervently Buddhist Tibetans who is reviled by Chinese
leaders.
Yushu and its environs are among the Tibetan areas caught up in the anti-
government protests that swept the region in March 2008. Tensions have
simmered since, and the region has been closed to foreigners off and on.
CCTV reported that soon after the quake, troops secured banks, oil depots
and caches of explosives.
Yushu was for centuries home to important Buddhist monasteries and a
trading hub and gateway to central Tibet. In recent years, the government
has poured investment into Yushu, opening an airport last year and
building a highway to the provincial capital of Xining.
The seismically active region saw a magnitude-7.9 quake two years ago
that left almost 90,000 people dead or missing in neighbouring Sichuan
province 650 kilometres away. Poor design, shoddy construction and the
lax enforcement of building codes were found to be rampant.
In Jiegu, about 30 kilometres from the epicenter, the local fire brigade was
trying to rescue 20 students stuck inside a school, Kang Zifu, head of the
rescue team, told state television. It did not say what type of school it was.
Five students were killed and others trapped in a primary school, a teacher
told Xinhua, saying morning classes had not yet started when the quake
struck. Another official said students were buried at several primary
schools.
More than 85 per cent of houses had collapsed in Jiegu, which Tibetans
call Gyegu, while large cracks have appeared on buildings still standing,
the official Xinhua News Agency cited Zhuohuaxia, a local publicity official,
as saying.
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