A massive earthquake in central China yesterday killed at least 7,000 people in Sichuan Province, with the overall death toll expected to increase sharply.
Xinhua news agency said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan County and that another 10,000 people were believed hurt there.
The epicenter was in Sichuan, striking 92km northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit in the middle of the afternoon — when classes and offices were full.
PHOTO: AFP
Thousands of soldiers and police have already been dispatched to the epicenter in Wenchuan County, about 100km away from Beichuan, which has a population of 160,000.
In another area close to the epicenter, workers were struggling to dig out an estimated 900 middle school students trapped when the Juyuan Middle School building collapsed. Photographs showed heavy cranes trying to move rubble from the ruined structure.
It said four of the students were confirmed dead, but did not say how many of others were feared dead.
The earthquake comes fewer than three months before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics, which China hopes to use to showcase its rise in the world.
Xinhua said its reporters in Juyuan Township about 100km from the epicenter in Wenchuan saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-story school “while others were crying out for help.”
Photos posted on the Internet and found on the Chinese search engine Baidu showed arms and a torso sticking out of the rubble of the school as dozens of people worked to free them, using small mechanical winches or their hands to move concrete slabs.
Another photo from Wenchuan showed what appeared to have been a six-story building flattened, ripped away from taller buildings of gray concrete.
Xinhua quoted the Ministry of Civil Affairs as saying the 107 dead had been killed in Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces and in the municipality of Chongqing. It said many had died in collapsed buildings, but did not give details.
More than 5,000 soldiers and police have been rushed into Sichuan to help with the disaster relief.
The airport in Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu, was closed and roads were clogged with traffic after the earthquake, state television reported.
Rain was also predicted for the disaster area.
The quake of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake at 2:28pm, the US Geological Survey said on its Web site. It was centered about 10km below the surface. A series of smaller aftershocks followed.
Calls into the city did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system.
“In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication switches have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service,” said Sha Yuejia (沙躍家), deputy chief executive officer of China Mobile.
Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to the Associated Press saying there were power and water outages there.
“Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting,” it said.
Xinhua said an underground water pipe ruptured near the city’s southern railway station, flooding a main thoroughfare. Reporters saw buildings with cracks in their walls, but no collapses, Xinhua said.
State television broadcast tips for anyone trapped in the earthquake.
“If you’re buried, keep calm and conserve your energy. Seek water and food, and wait patiently for rescue,” CCTV said.
The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing 1,500km to the north. The Chinese capital is expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors when the Olympic Games start on Aug. 8.
Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the Olympics, which start in August. None of the Olympic venues was damaged.
Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) arrived in Chengdu just before sunset to oversee rescue work.
People ran screaming into the streets in other cities, where many residents said they had never been in an earthquake. In Fuyang, 1,100km to the east in Anhui Province, chandeliers in the lobby of the Buckingham Palace Hotel swayed.
“We’ve never felt anything like this our whole lives,” said a hotel employee surnamed Zhu.
Patients at the Fuyang People’s No. 1 Hospital were evacuated. An hour after the quake, a half-dozen patients in blue-striped pajamas stood outside the hospital. One was laying on a hospital bed in the parking lot.
Closer to the epicenter in Chongqing, Lai Dequn was napping while her mother watched TV on the 19th floor of a hotel.
“I suddenly felt the bed shaking and then realized it must be an earthquake,” the 42-year-old Lai said. “So I just put on slippers and helped my mother down to the ground floor.”
In Shanghai, skyscrapers swayed and most office occupants went rushing into the streets. The quake was also felt as far away as Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.
The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu County in the west of Xinjiang.
China’s deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people. Yesterday’s quake was thought to be more powerful.
The quake was also felt in Taiwan at around 2:38pm yesterday. It measured 1.0 and lasted for about two minutes.
Hsiao Nai-chi (蕭乃祺), a specialist at the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), said yesterday that the center of the earthquake was located within a tectonic plate, which is very different from regular earthquakes that occur in Taiwan.
The epicenters of the earthquakes generally fall on the rims of tectonic plates, he said.
The energy released through the earthquake was five times greater than that of the 921 earthquake in 1999, which measured 7.3.
Lu Pei-ling (呂佩玲), deputy director of the Central Weather Bureau’s seismology center, further explained why an earthquake in Sichuan could generate repercussions in Taiwan.
“The surface waves of the earthquake are able to travel a long distance,” she said. “So you can feel the tremor not only in Sichuan, but also in Beijing as well.”
The Travel Agents Association estimated that about 2,360 Taiwanese tourists are in Sichuan.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
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