A earthquake devastated south-western China on Monday, killing close to 9,000 people and trapping hundreds of others under flattened schools, factories and houses. The 7.8 magnitude quake, centred in Sichuan province, struck in the middle of the school day and toppled at least eight schools.
Factories and at least one hospital were also razed, trapping hundreds more, state media said. The death toll appeared likely to climb in China's worst earthquake for over three decades. About 900 teenagers were buried in the rubble of a collapsed three-storey school building in the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan. Villagers helped dozens of students out as cranes excavated the site.
In Shefang city in Sichuan, 6,000 residents were evacuated after two chemical plants were levelled, trapping more than a hundred people and spilling corrosive liquids.
The government has rushed troops and medical teams to dig for survivors and treat the injured. State television showed Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to Sichuan, shouting words of hope to people buried under heavy concrete ruins.
"Everyone hang in there. We're rescuing you," he yelled into a hole as survivors nearby wept and moaned. But severed roads and rail lines have blocked rescuers' way to the epicentre in Wenchuan, a hilly county of 112,000 people about 100 km (62 miles) from the Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu. Wen said troops would walk in if they had to.
More than 7,000 of the dead were in Sichuan's Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, where 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed, Sichuan television said. Beichuan has a population of 161,000, meaning about one in 10 there were killed or injured. "We are doing everything we can, but the roads are blanketed with rocks and boulders," Xinhua quoted Sichuan deputy party chief Li Chongxi as saying. "Even if it means walking in, we must enter the worst-hit areas as quickly as possible," Wen said, according to Xinhua.
SHOWERS FORECAST: But showers forecast in Sichuan for Tuesday could make that more difficult. "The road is very hard-going, I don't know when we'll get there," a paramilitary officer, Li Zaiyuan, leading 100 troops by foot some 70 kms from Wenchuan, told state television.
Most phone lines in Wenchuan were down and a website for the region's Aba prefecture said the quake had cut several major highways and communications were largely severed in 11 counties. "The road started swaying as I was driving. Rocks fell from the mountains, with dust darkening the sky over the valley," a driver for Sichuan's seismological bureau was quoted by Xinhua as saying near the epicentre.
Troops have begun pouring into the region with sniffer dogs, life detection equipment, and fire-fighters carrying explosives to blow up rocks piled on the roads, state television said.
Landslides had cut off three major rail lines leading to Chengdu, stranding 31 passenger trains and 149 cargo trains, Xinhua said, but no casualties had been reported. The National Tourism Administration had ordered travel agencies to halt tour groups to or through the quake area.
FELT IN BANGKOK: The quake's force was felt across much of China and caused buildings to sway in Beijing and Shanghai and as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok. The quake was the worst to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in north-eastern China where up to 300,000 died.
This time the devastation was worst in hilly farming country, where winding roads can be hard travel even in normal times. The area is near the famed Wolong panda reserve. The disaster has come at a bad time for China, which holds the Olympic Games in August, and has been struggling to keep a lid on unrest in ethnic Tibetan areas. The US Geological Survey website (http:// earthquake. usgs.gov) said the main quake struck at 0628 GMT at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).
Thousands of people were milling about in the main square of Chengdu late on Monday, where at least 45 had died and 600 were injured, state television reported. Many residents and school students there and across the region slept outside. In Beijing and Shanghai, office workers poured into the streets. In the capital, there was no visible damage and the showpiece Bird's Nest Olympic stadium was unscathed.
In Washington, President George W. Bush said the United States was ready to help, and Japan, France, Germany and other powers also sent messages offering condolences and help. But for now China is struggling to get its own rescuers where they are most needed, and one international aid expert said the death toll was likely to rise in coming days.
"Our biggest concern is children who were in schools and orphanages when the earthquake hit," said Wyndham James, the China country director for the Save the Children charity. "I can imagine the authorities are releasing only conservative [death toll] figures that are likely to grow."
Some 61 people have been confirmed killed in northern Shaanxi, 48 in north-western Gansu, 50 in Chongqing municipality, and one in Yunnan province, Xinhua said, citing the national headquarters of disaster relief.