Wednesday, 14 April 2010


The Chinese government has said at least 300 people have been killed following a strong earthquake in the remote northwestern Qinghai province, which borders Tibet.


Rescue efforts are continuing after around 8,000 people were injured when houses, schools and offices collapsed.


The US Geological Survey said the morning earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9 on the Richter scale.



The Tibetan plateau is regularly shaken by earthquakes, but casualties are usually minimal because so few people live there.


Roads have been damaged or blocked by landslides and telecommunications have been disrupted.
Many residents of the remote area could be left without shelter in temperatures that hover near freezing in Yushu, and even colder in the high mountain villages.


'I see injured people everywhere. The biggest problem now is that we lack tents, we lack medical equipment, medicine and medical workers,' Zhuohuaxia, a local spokesman, told the Xinhua news agency.


The quake was centred in the mountains that divide Qinghai province from Tibet.


The foothills to the south and east of the area are home to herders and Tibetan monasteries of Yushu county, while the area to the north and west is arid and desolate.


The quake was centred 240km north-northwest of Qamdo in Tibet and 375km south-southeast of the mining town of Golmud in Qinghai, and had a depth of 10km, the US Geological Service said.


A magnitude 5.0 quake struck the same region late last night, and aftershocks of magnitude 6.0 and over rattled the town early this morning, sending fearful residents into the streets.