Earthquake in western China kills 400, buries more

Earthquake in western China kills 400, buries more:
A series of strong earthquakes hit Tibet a mountainous area of western China on Wednesday, with at least 400 people were injured and more than 10,000 as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, officials said. Many more people were trapped and the toll is expected to rise. The largest quake registered at the U.S. Geological Survey as magnitude 6.9. In the aftermath, people panic, many bleeding from their wounds, flooded the streets of a town in Qinghai province, where most of the homes were flattened. Students were reportedly buried in different schools damaged. Paramilitary police used shovels to dig through the rubble in the city, the images on state television showed. Officials said excavators were not available and most of the roads leading to the damaged nearest airport, equipment and rescue workers would have a hard time reaching the area. Hospitals were overwhelmed, many lack even the most basic necessities, and the doctors were in short supply. Downed telephone lines, strong winds and frequent aftershocks also hampered rescue operations, said Wu Yong, a local military leader, who said the death toll "could rise further because many houses collapsed." With many people forced out, the provincial government said the 5,000 tents and 100,000 blankets and coats to the mountainous region, where the average temperature around 43 degrees Fahrenheit rush (6 degrees Celsius). Workers were racing on the water released from a reservoir in the area where the disaster on a crack had formed after the earthquake of a flood prevention, according to the China Earthquake Administration. Wednesday the quake, which hit at 7:49 local time (2349 GMT, 7:49 pm EDT), was aimed at Yushu County, in the southern part of Qinghai, near Tibet, with a population of about 100,000, mainly shepherds and farmers. The USGS six temblors recorded in less than three hours, all but one registering 5.0 or higher. China Earthquake Networks Center, the largest earthquake measured at magnitude 7.1. Qinghai average more than five earthquakes per year of at least magnitude 5.0, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. They usually do not cause much damage in the sparsely populated province. Residents fled as the ground shook, tilting houses made of mud and wood, and temples, gas stations, electric poles and the summit of a Buddhist pagoda in a park, witnesses and state media said. The earthquake also caused landslides, Xinhua said. "Almost all the houses made of mud and wood collapsed. There was so much dust in the air, we could see nothing," said Ren Yu, General Manager of Hotel in Yushu Jiegu. "There was lots of panic. People were crying on the streets. Some of our employees, who were reunited with their parents, were also in tears." More than 100 guests of the hotel, which was relatively undamaged, were evacuated to open spaces such as squares, Ren told The Associated Press by telephone. After transporting guests to safety, then the hotel staff helped in rescue efforts in other buildings, said Ren. "We pulled 70 people, but some of them died on way to hospital," Ren said, adding other survivors were in tents in the garden of the hotel while they waited for assistance. The death toll at about 400 in the afternoon increased, according to CCTV. Pubucairen emergency official, who goes by only one name, was quoted as saying that the number of wounded has risen to more than 10,000. The official said rescuers were injured to hospitals, sports stadiums and tracks deal. Yushu and its surroundings are among the Tibetan areas in the anti-government protests that swept the region in March 2008 captured. Tensions simmered for several months, which China region closed to foreigners for months. CCTV reported that shortly after the earthquake, troops secure banks, oil depots and caches of explosives. Yushu was for centuries the home of major Buddhist monasteries and a trading hub and gateway to central Tibet. In recent years the government has poured investment in Yushu, opening an airport last year and building a highway to the provincial capital of Xining. The earthquake comes just under two years after a magnitude-7.9 earthquake in the neighboring province of Sichuan time nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. Quake that flattened many schools, killing thousands of students. Poor design, sloppy construction and lax enforcement of building codes proved to be rampant. In Jiegu, the main town in Yushu county, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the epicenter, the local fire department tried to down 20 students in a school to save Zifu Kang, head of the rescue team, told state television. It did not say what kind of school. Five students were slain and others trapped in a school, a teacher told Xinhua, saying the morning classes had not started when the earthquake struck. Another official said students were buried on a number of primary schools. More than 85 percent of the homes had collapsed in Jiegu, which Tibetans call Gyegu and large cracks have appeared on the buildings still standing, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Zhuohuaxia, a local official, as saying publicity. "The streets are filled with panic and Jiegu full of wounded, many of them bleeding from their injuries," said Zhuohuaxia, who goes by one name. A monk named Luo Song from a monastery in Yushu County, said his sister, who worked at a local orphanage told him three children were taken to a hospital, but lacked the equipment. "She said that hospitals have difficulty facing right now, because there are no doctors, they only bandages, they can not give injections, they can no people on intravenous infusions," said the monk by the phone while on a visit to the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Rural hospitals are generally not well equipped. The provincial emergency office told Xinhua that 700 soldiers trying to clear the debris and rescue buried 1,000 people and that more troops would be sent. A local military official, Shi Huajie, CCTV said rescuers were working with limited equipment. "The difficulty we face is that we have no machinery. Many people are buried and our soldiers are trying to attract them with human labor," said Shi. "It is very difficult for people with our bare hands to save."