Earthquake buries 900 children in schools collapse

Asia Pacific News.Net
Monday 12th May, 2008

Soutwestern China has been hit by an earthquake which was felt as far away as Bangkok and Hanoi.

The death toll resulting from the earthquake is continuing to rise.

The official Xinhua newsagency says that between 3,000 and 5,000 people are feared dead and around 10,000 injured in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous county in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The provincial disaster relief authorities say around 80 percent of the buildings collapsed as well

Reports say as many as 900 students were buried when their high school collapsed after the earthquake in Sichuan Province.

The high school was located in Dujiangyan city near the epicentre of the earthquake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter Scale.

Details of the high school building's collapse are unclear, but it has been reported that rescuers are trying to retrieve survivors from the rubble.

Chinese state media has also reported five children died and 100 people were injured when two primary schools collapsed in Chongking after the powerful earthquake.

President Hu Jintao has called for all-out efforts to rescue quake-hit victims, while Premier Wen Jiabao is on his way to the epicentre.

The first and strongest quake took place at 2.28 p.m. on Monday.

Its epicentre was located 31.0 degrees north latitude and 103.4 degrees east longitude.

With a population of 111,800, Wenchuan lies in southeast part of the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, 146 km to the northwest of Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan.

Wenchuan is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading research and breeding base of the endangered giant pandas.

Tremors were also reported from many other parts of China.

Reporters in Chengdu said residential buildings in downtown areas were damaged.

The telecom networks in Chengdu and Chongqing cities were snapped after the quake.

People complained they were unable to make telephone calls on the fixed line or in the mobile.

The quake was also felt in Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan Province, where people rushed out of homes and offices and took to the streets.

Many said they felt dizzy and saw the pendant lamps on their ceilings swinging back and forth.

In Lanzhou, capital of the northwest China's Gansu Province, the quake sent many parked cars by the roadside buzzing.

Xinhua reporters in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, said they felt the office building rocking back and forth for about four minutes.

In Shanghai, many people were evacuated from office buildings in Hongqiao and Nanjing Road.

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