BEIJING — Chinese state television says that the death toll from
a strong earthquake in a western province has climbed to 400.
CTTV quoted emergency official Pubucairen as saying Wednesday
that the number of injured has risen to more than 10,000 as rescue
workers struggle to dig trapped people out in Qinghai province. The
U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured a magnitude of
6.9.
Rescue efforts have been hindered by telecommunications
problems, with phone lines down.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP's earlier story is below.
BEIJING (AP) — A series of strong earthquakes struck China's
western Qinghai province Wednesday, killing at least 300 people,
injuring thousands and burying many others under toppled houses in
a mountainous rural area, officials and state media said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.9 temblor struck
an area in southern Qinghai, near Tibet, on Wednesday morning and
was followed by several aftershocks.
The main quake sent residents fleeing as it toppled houses made
of mud and wood, said Karsum Nyima, the Yushu county television
station's deputy head of news, speaking by phone with broadcaster
CCTV.
"In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible
earthquake," he said. "In a small park, there is a Buddhist tower
and the top of the tower fell off. ... Everybody is out on the
streets, standing in front of their houses, trying to find their
family members."
The quake hit the county of Yushu, a Tibetan area in Qinghai's
south, said the China Earthquake Networks Center, which measured
the quake's magnitude at 7.1. A local government Web site put the
county's population in 2005 at 89,300, a community of mostly
herders and farmers.
State broadcaster CCTV said the death toll had risen to about
300, with an additional 8,000 people injured.
The China Earthquake Administration said phone lines were down,
hindering rescue efforts, while workers were racing to release
water from a reservoir where a crack had formed after the
quake.
In Jiegu, a township near the epicenter, more than 85 percent of
houses had collapsed, while large cracks have appeared on buildings
still standing, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Zhuohuaxia, a
local publicity official, as saying.
"The streets in Jiegu are thronged with panic and full of
injured people, with many of them bleeding from their injuries," he
said.
There were also students buried under the debris of a collapsed
vocational school, Zhuohuaxia said.
State television showed footage of paramilitary police using
shovels to dig around a house with a collapsed wooden roof. A local
military official, Shi Huajie, told state broadcaster CCTV rescuers
were working with limited equipment.
"The difficulty we face is that we don't have any excavators.
Many of the people have been buried and our soldiers are trying to
pull them out with human labor," Shi said. "It is very difficult to
save people with our bare hands."
Five thousand tents and 100,000 thick, cotton coats and heavy
blankets were being sent to help survivors cope with strong winds
and near-freezing temperatures of around 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6
degrees C), the Qinghai provincial government said in a
statement.
Wu Yong, a local military chief, said medical workers also were
urgently needed but that roads leading to the airport had been
badly damaged by the quake, creating difficulties for people and
supplies to be flown in. He said rescue efforts were hindered by
frequent aftershocks and strong winds.