Chengdu - China Earthquake

Reported latest that the epicenter of the latest earthquake in China, Chengdu escaped major damages. However this not the case for the outlying ares from the epicenter. According to news report in www.timesonline.co.uk the external areas of Chengdu suffered extensive damage and casualties could be in the thousands.


Here is the full report.

Up to 5,000 people were reported to have been killed in a single Chinese county today after a major earthquake struck a densely populated area of in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The quake, with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, flattened schools, offices and houses in Sichuan, and caused widespread damage in nearby Gansu and Yunnan as well as the sprawling municipality of Chongqing. The tremor was felt in cities across southeast Asia as far as Bangkok, more than 1,200 miles from the epicentre.

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier, who flew immediately from Beijing to Sichuan province, called it a “major disaster” and urged calm.

The quake struck at 2.28pm (0628 GMT) 57 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu, which has a population of more than 12 million.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said that 3,000 to 5,000 were killed in Beichuan, a county of Sichuan province, and 10,000 were injured.

Xinhua reported that up to 900 students were trapped in the rubble of a high school collapsed in Dujiangyan, which has a population of some 600,000. Xinhua said that at least four children were confirmed dead there and quoted a local official saying “rows of houses” had also been demolished.

Another four children died and more than 100 were injured when two primary schools crumbled in Chongqing.

A resident of Mianyang, in Sichuan, said: “The air-conditioning unit fell off the wall. Vases are all broken. The sick in hospital have been moved outside to open fields. There is no electricity and no mobile phone reception. People are afraid of aftershocks."

“Facing disaster the most important thing is calm, confidence, courage and strong leadership,” Mr Wen told China’s CCTV television on a flight to the heart of the quake-hit zone. “We will definitely overcome this major disaster”.

President Hu Jintao urged an “all-out” effort to rescue victims.

Military troops were ordered to help with the disaster relief work. The international airport at Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, was closed and air travel disrupted elsewhere.

An Olympic spokesman said that none of the 31 venues for the Beijing Olympics in the capital and six other host cities had been damaged. “They are earthquake-proof to a high degree and no damage was done,” said Sun Weide of the Olympic communictions department.

Both the Chinese seismological bureau and the US Geological Survey, which use different scales, measured it at 7.8. A series of aftershocks continued to rock the region, including one of 5.8 felt near Chengdu, according to the USGS.

The phone network there and elsewhere around the country appeared to suffer a meltdown as people tried to find out what happened.

Resident of Chengdu said that they felt a violent shaking that threw glassware to the floor and toppled street lights.

Troops were immediately sent to help with disaster relief work in Wenchuan, a city of about 111,000 people. Tian Yixiang, who works for the emergency office of the People’s Liberation Army, said the soldiers would assist the local government there. Wenchuan is best-known as the home of the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading research and breeding base for the endangered giant panda. Calls to the base failed to connect.

The government in Aba prefecture of Sichuan province said buildings had collapsed and many were cracked. Mountain roads had been damaged.

The earthquake was felt as far away as Vietnam and Thailand, startling office workers in high-rise buildings. There were no reports of damage. In Beijing, office workers rushed in panic out of towers in the capital’s financial district.

One of China’s tallest buildings, the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, as well as other skyscrapers were ordered to evacuate after the tremor and aftershocks.

China’s worst earthquake in modern history was centred in the northern city of Tangshan and killed some 250,000 people on July 27, 1976.

That tremor lasted for 15 seconds and flattened 90 percent of buildings. It was the deadliest in the world of the 20th century.