Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Major earthquake hits central china

CHONGQING, China (AP) — One of the worst earthquakes in decades struck central China on Monday, killing nearly 9,000 people, trapping about 900 students under the rubble of their school and causing a toxic chemical leak, state media reported.

Earthquake in China - http://earthisours.blogspot.com

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated a hilly region of small cities and towns. The official Xinhua News Agency said 8,533 people died in Sichuan province and more than 200 others were killed in three other provinces and the mega-city of Chongqing.

Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Sichuan province's Beichuan county after the quake, raising fears the overall death toll could increase sharply.

The quake hit about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu — a city of 3.75 million — in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full. There were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

The earthquake, China's deadliest since 1976, occurred in an area with numerous fault lines that have triggered destructive temblors before. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Diexi, Sichuan that hit on August 25, 1933 killed more than 9,300 people.

About 1,200 pandas — 80 percent of the surviving wild population in China — live in several mountainous areas of Sichuan.

The earthquake hit one of the last homes of the giant panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve and panda breeding center, in Wenchuan county, which remained out of contact, Xinhua said.

The Wolong PandaCam, a live online video feed showing the activities of the pandas at the nature reserve, stopped showing footage of the animals late Sunday night.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles 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.

Skyscrapers swayed in Shanghai and in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast. 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.

More Photos:


Earthquake in China - http://earthisours.blogspot.com
A man walks down a staircase full of debris inside a hospital after an earthquake in Chengdu of southwest China's Sichuan province, Monday, May 12, 2008. Thousands of soldiers and police were dispatched to central China after a massive earthquake Monday killed at least 107 people and buried nearly 900 schoolchildren. (AP Photo/Color China Photo)

Earthquake in China - http://earthisours.blogspot.com
In this photo distributed by the official Xinhua news agency, people look upwards after running out of high buildings in Nanjing, northwest China, after a powerful, magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck mountainous central China on Monday May 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Han Yuqing)

Earthquake in China - http://earthisours.blogspot.com
In this photo distributed by the official Chinese news agency, people try to find their property among the debris of collapsed buildings in Dujiangyan, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Monday May 12, 2008. A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province on Monday, leading to the collapse of many buildings in the neighbouring city of Dujiangyan, Xinhua said. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Chen Xie)

Earthquake in China - http://earthisours.blogspot.com
In this photo distributed by the official Xinhua news agency, rescuers try to save wounded students at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Township of Dujiangyan City, about 100 kilometers from the epicenter in Wenchuan county of southwest China's Sichuan province, on Monday May 12, 2008. Nearly 900 students here were feared buried when a high school building collapsed in the earthquake, Xinhua said. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Chen Xie)

Earthquake in China - http://earthisours.blogspot.com
In this photo distributed by the official Xinhua news agency, rescuers search for students at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Township of Dujiangyan City, about 100 kilometers from the epicenter in Wenchuan county of southwest China's Sichuan province, on Monday May 12, 2008. Nearly 900 students here were feared buried when a high school building collapsed in the earthquake, Xinhua said. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Chen Xie)

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