A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled southwest China late Tuesday, killing at least seven people, with up to 100 feared dead, according to a government estimate. Seven people died and 88 were injured in the quake, including 21 seriously, the official Xinhua news agency said. It said all the dead were visitors to the touristic area. But China's National Commission for Disaster Reduction estimated that as many as 100 people may have perished, based on 2010 census data of the mountainous, sparsely populated region. Over 130,000 houses may be damaged, it added in a statement posted on its website, based on a preliminary analysis of the disaster in a remote region of Sichuan province.
President Xi Jinping called for "all-out efforts to rapidly organise relief work and rescue the injured people", according to Xinhua. Restaurant owner Tang Sesheng fled her establishment in Jiuzhaigou town after she felt the earth moving under her. "I was also in Jiuzhaigou in 2008 during the last big quake, so I knew what it was. This felt even stronger," she told AFP by phone. She said people had come out of their homes to sit out in the town's large public square, far from any tall structures, afraid to go back inside for fear that buildings might topple.
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