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BBC MUNDO RADIO
Updated: 39 minutes ago
(April 14) -- A series of powerful earthquakes has rattled the edge of the Tibetan plateau in western China this morning, killing at least 400 people and trapping scores more under collapsed homes in a vast mountain area of Buddhist farmers and coal miners.
Chinese state media say 10,000 have been injured. They put the biggest temblor's magnitude at 7.1, but the U.S. Geological Survey said it measured 6.9. It hit around 7:50 a.m. local time in western China's mountainous Qinghai area, close to the autonomous region of Tibet. Half a dozen aftershocks followed, reaching 5.8 magnitude.
"It's the most devastating thing I've ever seen," resident Guo Yang told The Wall Street Journal. "We are busy with rescuing people who are trapped." Some 1,200 miles from Beijing, the area is home to Tibetan farmers and herdsmen who live on pastoral land dotted with coal, tin, lead and copper mines. The quake severed roads and communication lines and sparked avalanches careening down from some of the world's highest mountains, complicating efforts to ship relief supplies to the high-altitude region. A huge dam nearby suffered major cracks, state media reported, threatening deadly floods if it were to give way.
State television is running footage of collapsed multi-story buildings, and workers digging through debris with their hands in hopes of finding survivors.
Near the quake's epicenter in Yushu county, state media said 85 percent of all houses were destroyed. "I heard dogs barking and the huge rumbling sound of houses collapsing," local official Li Hailong told The Washington Post. He said houses made of mud and wood "collapsed the moment the earthquake struck," and the rumbling lasted "five to six terrible minutes."
The vast majority of Yushu residents there are ethnic Tibetans or Mongolians who live in flimsy wooden houses with earthen walls.
Li also told the Post that in his home village of Jiegu, an elementary school collapsed on top of children who were filing into class. He said he saw the bodies of at least six children being hauled gingerly away. "The kids had just entered school and were about to have classes," he said.
"The streets in Jiegu are thronged with panic -- injured people, with many bleeding in the head," another local official, Zhuo Hua Xia, told the state Xinhua news agency. "I can see injured people everywhere. The biggest problem now is that we lack tents, we lack medical equipment, medicine and medical workers."
Hundreds of rescue workers are already in Yushu and thousands more are en route, the government said. "Soldiers have been dispatched to save the people buried in the collapsed houses," Xinhua quoted another local official as saying. But the area is hundreds of miles from a major airport, and relief supplies could be slow to arrive.
Given the landscape, rescue efforts are sure to be "challenging," Red Cross worker Francis Markus told CNN from his base in Chengdu, where another earthquake hit in May 2008. "But China does have a lot of experience and a lot of resources," Markus said. "The capability is there. It's just a question of getting it to this remote spot."
Earthquakes are common on the Tibetan plateau, but they rarely cause mass casualties because the area is so sparsely populated. Still, the U.S. Geological Survey said this is the strongest quake since 1976 to strike within 60 miles of the area.
A massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan in southwestern China in May 2008, leaving nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and millions homeless. Rebuilding still continues from that quake.
Chinese state media say 10,000 have been injured. They put the biggest temblor's magnitude at 7.1, but the U.S. Geological Survey said it measured 6.9. It hit around 7:50 a.m. local time in western China's mountainous Qinghai area, close to the autonomous region of Tibet. Half a dozen aftershocks followed, reaching 5.8 magnitude.
"It's the most devastating thing I've ever seen," resident Guo Yang told The Wall Street Journal. "We are busy with rescuing people who are trapped." Some 1,200 miles from Beijing, the area is home to Tibetan farmers and herdsmen who live on pastoral land dotted with coal, tin, lead and copper mines. The quake severed roads and communication lines and sparked avalanches careening down from some of the world's highest mountains, complicating efforts to ship relief supplies to the high-altitude region. A huge dam nearby suffered major cracks, state media reported, threatening deadly floods if it were to give way.
State television is running footage of collapsed multi-story buildings, and workers digging through debris with their hands in hopes of finding survivors.
Near the quake's epicenter in Yushu county, state media said 85 percent of all houses were destroyed. "I heard dogs barking and the huge rumbling sound of houses collapsing," local official Li Hailong told The Washington Post. He said houses made of mud and wood "collapsed the moment the earthquake struck," and the rumbling lasted "five to six terrible minutes."
AP
17 photos Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Yushu county in western China's Qinghai province. Hundreds were killed and thousands injured Wednesday.
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China Earthquake
Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Yushu county in western China's Qinghai province. Hundreds were killed and thousands injured Wednesday.
AP
CCTV
The vast majority of Yushu residents there are ethnic Tibetans or Mongolians who live in flimsy wooden houses with earthen walls.
Li also told the Post that in his home village of Jiegu, an elementary school collapsed on top of children who were filing into class. He said he saw the bodies of at least six children being hauled gingerly away. "The kids had just entered school and were about to have classes," he said.
"The streets in Jiegu are thronged with panic -- injured people, with many bleeding in the head," another local official, Zhuo Hua Xia, told the state Xinhua news agency. "I can see injured people everywhere. The biggest problem now is that we lack tents, we lack medical equipment, medicine and medical workers."
Hundreds of rescue workers are already in Yushu and thousands more are en route, the government said. "Soldiers have been dispatched to save the people buried in the collapsed houses," Xinhua quoted another local official as saying. But the area is hundreds of miles from a major airport, and relief supplies could be slow to arrive.
Given the landscape, rescue efforts are sure to be "challenging," Red Cross worker Francis Markus told CNN from his base in Chengdu, where another earthquake hit in May 2008. "But China does have a lot of experience and a lot of resources," Markus said. "The capability is there. It's just a question of getting it to this remote spot."
Earthquakes are common on the Tibetan plateau, but they rarely cause mass casualties because the area is so sparsely populated. Still, the U.S. Geological Survey said this is the strongest quake since 1976 to strike within 60 miles of the area.
A massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan in southwestern China in May 2008, leaving nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and millions homeless. Rebuilding still continues from that quake.
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