At least 102 people are dead and more than 2,200 injured after a powerful earthquake rocked Sichuan, in south-west China, on Saturday morning, officials said.
The 6.6-magnitude shock is believed to have been on the same fault as the devastating quake that left 70,000 dead and another 18,000 missing in the province five years ago. It struck close to Ya'an, a city of 1.5 million people west of the provincial capital, Chengdu, at about 8am local time.
State television said 102 people had been confirmed dead with more than 2,200 injured, 147 of them seriously.
Officials said almost all the buildings in Longmen village collapsed and nearly 10,000 houses throughout Lushan county were damaged. In some areas, roads were cut off, power failed and telecoms service was intermittent.
Residents in Chengdu and Chongqing, hundreds of kilometres as away, fled their buildings as they felt the tremor and repeated aftershocks.
More than 6,000 soldiers have been dispatched to aid rescue efforts in the mountainous area, state media reported.
China's president, Xi Jinping, and the premier, Li Keqiang, called an emergency meeting to co-ordinate the response and Li has flown to the disaster zone to supervise work, the official broadcaster reported.
Initial reports suggested the worst damage was in rural villages around Ya'an, which lies on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The state news agency Xinhua reported major building collapses and damaged roads in Shuangshi and Longmen townships.
"We are very busy right now. There are about eight or nine injured people; the doctors are handling the cases," a doctor at a Ya'an hospital told Reuters.
A man who answered the phone at the Jiajia Hotel in Ya'an said many houses had collapsed and many people were injured.
Another man living nearby said officials and company bosses had evacuated everyone to outdoor spaces. "It is very chaotic everywhere and people have no idea what we can do," he said. "We were the frontline of [the 2008] earthquake, so in most companies, departments or organisations there are emergency resources, but we need more. Hopefully we can get over it soon, and it won't be as bad as last time."
Chinese seismologists recorded the quake at magnitude 7, while the US Geological Survey recorded it at magnitude 6.6 at a depth of 12km. The USGS said it appeared to be on the Longmenshan fault, the source of 2008's 7.9-magnitude shock.
Chengdu airport was briefly closed to flights after the shock hit and railways officials halted 82 trains, China Daily reported.
Saturday 20 April 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/20/earthquake-china-yaan-sichuan
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