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Report: China quake kills at least 40012:33 AM Thursday Apr 15, 2010
Officials say the death toll from a strong earthquake in a western province has risen to at least 400, with more than 10,000 hurt.
China Central Television said the toll from today's earthquake had risen as rescue workers struggled to dig trapped people out in Qinghai province.
The US Geological Survey reported on its website that a magnitude 6.9 temblor struck an area in southern Qinghai near Tibet about 7.50am local time (11.50am NZT), and was followed by three quakes in the same area.
The aftershocks measured 5.3 and 5.2 and another almost two hours later (1.25pm NZT) which was 5.8 on the Richter scale, USGS said.
A spokesman for New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the country's embassy would be making enquiries as to whether or not any Kiwis were in the area at the time of the earthquake.
Rescue efforts were hindered by telecommunications problems, with phone lines down.
The quake sent residents fleeing as it toppled many houses made of mud and wood, said Gasong Nima, the Yushu county television station's deputy head of news, speaking by phone with state broadcaster CCTV.
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"In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake," the witness 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," he said, adding that school buildings had not collapsed but students had been evacuated and were assembled in outdoor playgrounds.
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 labour," Shi said. "It is very difficult to save people with our bare hands."
Wu Yong, a local military chief, said medical workers were also 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.
The epicentre of the first quake was located 380 kilometres south-southeast of Golmud, a large city in Qinghai, at a depth of 10 kilometres, the USGS said.
Ten minutes later, the area was hit by a magnitude 5.3 quake, which was followed after two minutes by a temblor measuring 5.2, according to the US agency. Both the subsequent earthquakes were measured at a depth of 10 kilometres.
Calls to the local Communist Party office and the government of Yushu county and the Qinghai provincial seismological bureau rang unanswered.
In 2008, a magnitude-7.9 quake in Sichuan province left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.
- AP, NZ HERALD ONLINE