Huge Toll Feared In Quake

The Age

Tuesday May 13, 2008

By John Garnaut, China Correspondent, Beijing with Agencies

THOUSANDS of people have been killed by a powerful earthquake that struck densely populated areas of south-western China late yesterday.

The quake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, flattened schools, homes and factories across a wide area of mountainous Sichuan province and neighbouring regions.

More than 7,600 people had been confirmed dead in Sichuan by early today Melbourne time.

The toll was expected to rise sharply as rescue teams reached the worst-hit areas.

Between 3000 and 5000 people were reported to have died in one county alone. A further 10,000 in the county, Beichuan, were feared injured and 80% of the buildings there were destroyed, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called it a "major disaster" and flew to the area last night. President Hu Jintao ordered an "all-out" rescue effort.

Buildings in at least eight schools across Sichuan were reported to have collapsed, burying unknown numbers of elementary and middle-school children, state television said.

At a high school in the Dujiangyan district, about 900 students were reported to be buried in one building collapse. Fifty students had been confirmed dead there late last night.

Local villagers helped dozens of students out of the ruins and cranes were excavating at the site as anxious parents looked on, Xinhua said.

"Some buried teenagers were struggling to break loose from underneath the ruins while others were crying out for help," the agency said.

A hospital in the same area had also collapsed, along with "rows of houses".

Elsewhere, five children were confirmed dead and 120 injured after buildings at two primary schools in rural parts of Chongqing municipality collapsed.

And hundreds of people were buried in two collapsed chemical plants in Shifang, with about 6000 people evacuated, Xinhua said. More than 80 tonnes of liquid ammonia had leaked.

The Civil Affairs ministry, quoted by Xinhua, also reported major damage beyond Sichuan in neighbouring provinces of Gansu and Yunnan.

The quake is the worst to hit China since 1976, when up to 300,000 were killed in the Tangshan earthquake in the north-east of the country.

"Facing disaster, the most important thing is calm, confidence, courage and strong leadership," Premier Wen told China's CCTV television on a flight to the quake-hit zone.

The quake struck about 90 kilometres from Chengdu, a city of more than 10 million people, and about 260 kilometres from Chongqing.

The State Seismological Bureau located its epicentre in Wenchuan county, home to China's leading research and breeding base for endangered giant pandas. Xinhua quoted an official saying the landmark Three Gorges Dam in Sichuan province had not been affected, and an Olympic spokesman said none of the 31 venues for the Beijing Olympics in the capital and six other host cities had been damaged.

However, buildings shook in Beijing and Shanghai, with many people evacuating tower blocks and rushing onto the street. Tremors were also felt in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Hanoi and Taipei, residents there said.

Both the Chinese seismological bureau and the US Geological Survey, which use different scales, measured it at 7.8.

The quake struck shortly before 2.30pm local time (4.30pm Melbourne time), at a depth of just 10 kilometres.

A series of aftershocks continued to rock the region, including one of 5.8 felt near Chengdu. The phone network there and in other parts of the country appeared to be in meltdown as people tried to find out what happened.

At least 45 had died in Chengdu, Xinhua said, and another 600 people were injured, 58 of them critically.

State television showed footage of Chengdu residents, where the airport and railway station were closed, crowded in the streets looking relatively unscathed.

-- With Agencies

© 2008 The Age

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