900 Students Have Been Buried

[cappie]

'Hundreds buried' by China quake

Almost 900 students have been buried by collapsed buildings during an earthquake in south-western China, state media reports.

President Hu Jintao has called for "all-out" efforts to rescue victims of the quake which had a magnitude of 7.8.

The quake struck 92km (57 miles) north-west of Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu, at 1428 (0628 GMT).

Premier Wen Jiabao is travelling to the area and troops are being sent to help with disaster relief efforts.

Full details of the incident which buried 900 students are not available.

Earlier, four schoolchildren were reported to have died, and more than 100 others were injured, when primary school buildings collapsed in the Chongqing area, a large municipality near Sichuan province, Xinhua news agency added.

Another person is reported to have died when a water tower collapsed in the city of Mianyang, in Santai county.

There are fears of further casualties.

At least 10 people are reported to have been injured in Dujiangyan city, near the epicentre in the mainly rural Wenchuan county, when rows of houses collapsed.

A spokesman for the provincial seismological bureau told Xinhua more people were feared injured or dead.

Forty-four aftershocks have been reported since the quake, which was the strongest to hit Sichuan province in more than 30 years, Xinhua reports.

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Residents stream onto the streets

Troops and helicopters have been sent to help with relief work.

The BBC's Quentin Somerville says the Chinese army has a good record of mobilising and getting people to safety.

State television said the quake had not caused major damage to Chengdu, which has a population of more than 10 million people, or to the nearby Three Gorges Dam.



But workers were evacuated from swaying buildings in several cities.

Tremors were felt as far afield as Beijing, the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Hanoi in Vietnam.

Workers in Beijing - about 930 miles from Chengdu - said buildings shook for about two minutes.

In the city's financial district, people poured out of buildings, but there were no visible signs of damage.

China's tallest building, the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, was also evacuated, Reuters news agency said.

Continuous quake

In Chengdu, residents streamed on to the streets, cracks were reported in some buildings and water pipes burst.

"Some building are cracked, but nothing major, from what we can see in the area near our hotel," Gilles Barbier in Chengdu told the BBC News website.

"The quake was really strong, continuous. Two aftershocks could be felt."

Bobby Silby in Zhengzhou in Henan province said he was having lunch in a restaurant when he felt the tremors.

"It felt like the floor was moving all around me, everyone started running outside in a panic. The streets are still filled with people who haven't gone back into their buildings."

Telephone lines to the affected areas were jammed.

The area where Monday's earthquake struck lies on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau.

Wenchuan county is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading research and breeding base for endangered giant pandas.

[Deb]

That is very sad. I expect to see more of them though. Sign of the times.

[Archaeology cat]

[Dust's Sister]

[CatherineM]

When disasters hit during the school day, there always seems to be so many more casualties.

[Madame Vengier]

Oh, soooooooooooooooooooo sad.

It seems the whole globe is experience unusual weather patterns this past week. Even here in DC we should be up close to 80 degrees with lots of sunshine but the past several days have been rain that won't seem to stop....and it's cold!

[kujo]

[quote name='Madame Vengier' post='1525761' date='May 12 2008, 02:17 PM']Oh, soooooooooooooooooooo sad.

It seems the whole globe is experience unusual weather patterns this past week. Even here in DC we should be up close to 80 degrees with lots of sunshine but the past several days have been rain that won't seem to stop....and it's cold![/quote]

My roommate's stepfather is a big Bayside Prophecy guy. He thinks Jesus is "taking the kids home" and told me "not to worry...it's all taken care of."

[Deb]

[quote name='kujo' post='1525762' date='May 12 2008, 01:20 PM']My roommate's stepfather is a big Bayside Prophecy guy. He thinks Jesus is "taking the kids home" and told me "not to worry...it's all taken care of."[/quote]

Hmmm. The Bayside people are kind of nuts.

[cappie]

Sichuan province: 8,533

Shaanxi province: 61

Gansu province: 48

Chongqing municipality: 50

Yunnan province: 1
As reported by Xinhua, 1700 GMT Monday

There were harrowing reports from the scene of a school collapse in Dujiangyan city - just south-east of the epicentre - where 900 students were buried and 50 dead.

Teenagers buried beneath the rubble of the three-storey Juyuan Middle School building were struggling to break free, while others were crying out for help, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Parents were watching as cranes excavated the site. Villagers rushed to help with the rescue.

Two girls said they escaped because they had "run faster than others".

Dozens of aftershocks have been reported since the quake, which was felt in Beijing, 1,545km (960 miles) away, and the Thai capital Bangkok, 1,800km (1,200 miles) away.

[CatherineM]

I hope they don't have something big like that happen during the Olympics.

[CatherineM]

And not because it's the Olympics, I was just thinking of all the new construction put up very quickly, and how many more people will be in Beijing then.

[cappie]

The death toll in the massive earthquake that rocked central China is at nearly 12,000, officials say. It comes as teams of rescuers battling through rock and mudslides Tuesday arrived at the epicenter of the earthquake.
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Wang Zhenyao of the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs said 11,922 people have died in the quake centered in Sichuan province.

A string of nearly 30 seismic aftershock jolts hit the province in the first 24 hours following Monday's quake and slowing the progress of 1,300-strong rescue teams. All of those quakes were magnitude 4.0 and above.

Military doctors and soldiers arrived around midday and began their search for survivors and the injured in Wenchuan County, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

[Madame Vengier]

I couldn't help thinking about the fact that two countries run by a Communist regime have experienced catastrophes within a week of each other. Both governments don't respect life--just some months ago the military junta in Burma was killing Buddhist monks in the street. And China's government practices forced abortions and forced sterilizations. And both governments teach their people that they don't need God.

I just find it ironic and very sad.

[Deb]

[quote name='Madame Vengier' post='1526821' date='May 13 2008, 06:28 AM']I couldn't help thinking about the fact that two countries run by a Communist regime have experienced catastrophes within a week of each other. Both governments don't respect life--just some months ago the military junta in Burma was killing Buddhist monks in the street. And China's government practices forced abortions and forced sterilizations. And both governments teach their people that they don't need God.

I just find it ironic and very sad.[/quote]

We don't force abortions but, our country doesn't respect life either, if one judges by the number of abortions and murders that take place here every year. I hope that is not the criteria for massive catstrophes.

[CatherineM]

We have a large Chinese community here, and on the news last night, they had people talking about calling their family members, and remembrances of the 1976 quake that killed a quarter of a million. One man commented that he was shocked at how much access China is letting to both aid workers and media in this crisis. I guess they haven't in the past. I wonder if the Tibet protests have taught them something, or maybe seeing how Burma is being viewed right now has allowed them to see themselves through others eyes for the first time.