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| Local residents receive medical treatment outside afte being evacuated from a hospital after in Chongqing municipality, after an earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province. REUTERS |
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A powerful earthquake in
south-western China has killed
and injured scores of people,
toppled buildings and rattled
cities more than two-thousand
kilometres away, including
Hong Kong. President Hu Jintao
has made an urgent appeal for
an "all out" effort to rescue
victims of the quake, which
measured seven-point-six on
the Richter Scale. The quake
struck 90-kilometres northwest
of the Sichhuan provincial
capital of Chengdu, at a depth
of ten kilometres, just before
two-thirty this afternoon.
Almost immediately, reports
began flooding in from
Beijing, Shanghai and other
major cities on the mainland
as well as the neighbouring
capitals of Bangkok, Taipei
and Hanoi, of buildings
swaying and frightened people
running into the streets.
There were similar reports
from countries as far west as
Pakistan. The initial reports
spoke of few casualties and
little damage. But in the past
hour, Xinhua has reported that
at least five children have
been killed and more than a
hundred others injured when
two schools in the Chongqing
area collapsed. It said a
number of buildings had
collapsed in the neighbouring
Yunnan province, and that
President Hu Jintao had urged
an "all-out" effort to rescue
victims. Troops have been
ordered to help with the
disaster relief work. Xinhua
said although the airport at
Chengdu has been closed, the
Premier, Wen Jiabao, was on
his way to the region. In
Beijing and Shanghai,
buildings shook for more than
several minutes but there were
no immediate reports of damage
or injuries. A number of
office buildings - including
China's tallest building, the
Jinmao tower in Shanghai -
were evacuated. Buildings also
swayed for two to three
minutes in Bangkok, Taipei and
Hanoi. Wong Wing-tak, a Senior
Scientific Officer with the
Hong Kong Observatory, said
it'd received a number of
calls from people here who'd
felt the quake just after
two-thirty. So far, there's
been little communications
with Chengdu as calls to
emergency response numbers in
the city rang constantly busy.
 
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