CHINA: Up to several thousand killed in earthquake in China's southwestern Sichuan province, according to official news agency

Record ID: 858721

  • Title: CHINA: Up to several thousand killed in earthquake in China's southwestern Sichuan province, according to official news agency
  • Date: 12th May 2008
  • Summary: (W2) BEIJING, CHINA (MAY 12, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) MISS YANG SAYING: "I felt that it was shaking and when I asked around, everybody else was feeling the same thing so we all came out of the building. Luckily we have done an emergency training course for earthquakes." (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) MISS WEI SAYING: "When I was looking at the numbers on the screen I felt really dizzy. I thought it was because I didn't get enough sleep. I closed my eyes and rubbed them just to find that it was still not right." PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE BUILDING / GUARD WALKING PAST PEOPLE STANDING AROUND
  • Embargoed: 27th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • City:
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVADX28XUM7WH9MYF09KNH9GSHV0
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Up to several thousand people were killed in the earthquake that hit China's south-western Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency says, citing the central government.
    An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people were killed in Beichuan county of mountainous Sichuan province alone after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the region during early afternoon on Monday (May 12).
    As many as 10,000 in Beichuan county were feared injured and 80 percent of the buildings there had been destroyed, the report said.
    Beichuan's population is 161,000, meaning about one in 10 residents were killed or injured in the quake. The county is a part of Mianyang city, and about 160 km (100 miles) from the provincial capital, Chengdu.
    The death toll was expected to rise sharply as authorities and rescue teams made contact with the worst-hit areas of Sichuan, where phone lines have been cut off since the quake struck.
    The quake had toppled at least eight schools and left hundreds of students and teachers trapped, state media said.
    About 900 teenagers were buried in the rubble of a collapsed three-storey school building in the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan.
    Local villagers had already helped dozens of students out of the ruins and five cranes were excavating at the site as anxious parents looked on, Xinhua said.
    The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website that the main quake struck at 0628 GMT at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).
    At least 45 had died in the provincial capital, Chengdu, Xinhua said, citing an official with the local seismological bureau. Another 600 people were injured, 58 of them critically, in the sprawling city of 10 million.
    The quake's epicentre was in the nearby county of Wenchuan and its force caused buildings to sway across China and as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok.
    Mountainous Wenchuan has a population of about 100,000 people.
    Buildings were toppled in at least six counties near the epicentre, Xinhua said.
    In Beijing and Shanghai, office workers poured into the streets as the tremor hit. In the capital, which will host the summer Olympics in August, there was no visible damage and the showpiece Bird's Nest stadium was unscathed, the project's engineer told Xinhua.
    But in Sichuan, phone lines in Wenchuan were down and a website for the region's Aba prefecture said the quake had cut several major highways and communications were down in 11 counties.
    Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Chengdu and President Hu Jintao ordered an "all-out" rescue effort, Xinhua reported.
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