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China: powerful quake may have killed 5,000 people in just one county |
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Written by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
People try to find their belongings among the debris of collapsed buildings in Dujiangyan, in southwest China's Sichuan Province. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Xinhua, Chen Xie
BEIJING - Thousands of people were feared dead Monday in an earthquake in southwestern China's Sichuan province that was so powerful it rocked office towers in Beijing some 1,500 kilometres away, the Chinese media reported.
The official Xinhua news agency said between 3,000 and 5,000 people died in just one county in Sichuan province alone.
An additional 10,000 people were reported injured in Beichuan county, where more than 80 per cent of the buildings collapsed, Xinhua said.
The epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which struck at mid-afternoon when schools and office towers were full, was some 95 kilometres northwest of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.
But the tremor was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as in Beijing and Shanghai, where thousands of people fled swaying buildings.
The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website that there were several smaller aftershocks.
Xinhua said almost 900 students were trapped in the collapse of their school, some 95 kilometres from the epicentre. But it was unclear how many survived. Photos showed heavy cranes trying to remove rubble from the ruined school.
Xinhua said its reporters in Juyuan township saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-storey 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 occurred less than three months before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics, when China hopes to showcase its rise in the world.
Calls to the city of Chengdu did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system. The quake affected telephone and power networks, and even state media appeared to have few details of the disaster.
"In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication convertors have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service," said Sha Yuejia, 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," he 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.
The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 1,500 kilometres to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.
Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the Olympics, which start in August.
"I've lived in Taipei and California and I've been through quakes before (but) this is the most I've ever felt," said James McGregor, a business consultant who was inside the LG Towers in Beijing's business district. "The floor was moving underneath me."
In Fuyang, 1,060 kilometres to the east, 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.
Skyscrapers in Shanghai swayed and most office occupants went rushing into the streets.
In the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 160 kilometres off the southeastern Chinese coast, buildings swayed when the quake hit. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The quake was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown. A building in the Thai capital of Bangkok also was evacuated after the quake was felt there.
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.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 15 May 2008 )
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