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Powerful earthquake hits Sichuan
Asia Pacific News.Net
Monday 12th May, 2008 (ANI)
New Delhi, May 12 : A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter Scale jolted Wenchuan County of southwest China's Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. Monday, the State Seismological Bureau said, revising a previous figure of 7.6.
The epicenter of the quake was located 31.0 degrees north latitude and 103.4 degrees east longitude, the bureau said.
The State Seismological Bureau said the quake measured 8.0 on the Richter Scale.
President Hu Jintao instructed to do utmost efforts to rescue and treat the victims, and Premier Wen Jiabao is on the way to Sichuan to direct the rescue efforts, according to a Xinhua report.
Four pupils died in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Monday afternoon when an earthquake toppled two primary schools in the outer Liangping County of Chongqing.
More than 100 students were reportedly injured, the local government said. In the quake-stricken areas, it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties or damage from the tremor.
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.
The telecom networks in Chengdu and Chongqing cities broke down for a while after the quake. People complained they were unable to have phone calls on the fixed line or 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.
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BigAL
05-12-08, 08:50 AM |
Powerful earthquake hits Sichuan
http://netconnect.net.cn
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BigAL
05-12-08, 08:51 AM |
News Update
http://netconnect.net.cn
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waltky
05-12-08, 10:23 AM |
It all came tumblin' down...
:eek:
Toll from China quake estimated at 3,000 to 5,000
12 May `08 - A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday and state media reported that as many as 5,000 people were killed in a single county while nearly 900 students were trapped under the rubble of their school.
Quote:
The official Xinhua News Agency said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in Sichuan province after the 7.8-magnitude quake. Xinhua reported that 3,000 to 5,000 people had died in Beichuan, which has a population of 160,000, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply. Another 10,000 people were believed to be hurt. The earthquake sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand.
Four of the dead were ninth-grade students killed when their high school collapsed, Xinhua said. Photos showed heavy cranes trying to remove rubble from the ruined school. Xinhua did not say how many of the students were feared dead. It said its reporters in Juyuan township, about 60 miles from the epicenter, saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-story building “while others were crying out for help." Two girls were quoted by Xinhua as saying they escaped because they had “run faster than others."
The earthquake comes less than three months before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics, when China hopes to use to showcase its rise in the world. Shanghai’s main index inched up Monday, but the advance was capped by worries over inflation and potential damage from the earthquake. Analysts said that shares of companies located in the Sichuan region may fall in coming sessions due to the quake. It struck in the middle of the afternoon when classes and office towers were full, about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu. There were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.
[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake]MORE[/url]
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