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At least one dead, many buried under debris after 7.1-magnitude quake hits China's Qinghai
English.news.cn 2010-04-14 10:06:48 FeedbackPrintRSS
YUSHU, Qinghai, April 14 (Xinhua) -- At least one person died, many others were buried under the debris after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China's Qinghai Province early on Wednesday, a local official said.
"There are still lots of others who are injured and being treated at local hospitals," Zhuohuaxia, a publicity official of Tibetan ethnic group with the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu, told Xinhua.
The quake struck the Yushu County in Yushu prefecture at 7:49 a.m. with a depth of about 33 km. The epicenter is calculated to be 33.1 north and 96.7 east, the China Earthquake Networks Center reported.
Three aftershocks have been reported so far.
Earlier on 5:39 a.m., a 4.7-magnitude jolted the county with a depth of about 6 km, the center reported.
The epicenter is about 30 km away from the Jiegu Township, the government seat of the Yushu prefecture, and about 800 km away from Xining, the provincial capital.
"We have set up rescue headquarters in Jiegu," said Huang Limin, deputy secretary-general of the Yushu prefecture government.
"Soldiers have been dispatched to save the people buried in the collapsed houses," he said.
Telecommunications were temporarily cut after the quake, but have been restored, he added.
Two rescue teams from Qinghai and Tibet have been dispatched to the quake-hit region, a spokesman with the China Earthquake Administration said.
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7.1-magnitude quake hits NW China's Qinghai province
English.news.cn 2010-04-14 08:25:57 FeedbackPrintRSS
YUSHU, Qinghai, April 14 (Xinhua) -- A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China's Qinghai Province early on Wednesday, the China Earthquake Networks Center said.
There have been casualties and house collapses, said residents and witnesses near the epicenter in the Yushu County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu.
"As far as I know, there have been human casualties," said Karsum Nyima, deputy director of the News Department of the Yushu TV.
"I saw the roof of a Buddhist pagoda in a park collapsed," he said.
"The houses here are almost all made of wood and earthen walls. Some collapsed when the quake happened," he said.
But no official statistics have been released.
The quake struck the Yushu County at 7:49 a.m. with a depth of about 33 km. The epicenter is calculated to be 33.1 north and 96.7 east, the China Earthquake Networks Center reported.
Three aftershocks have been reported so far.
Earlier on 5:39 a.m., a 4.7-magnitude jolted the county with a depth of about 6 km, the center reported.
The epicenter is about 30 km away from the Jiegu Township, the government seat of the Yushu prefecture, and about 800 km away from Xining, the provincial capital.
"We are investigating the casualties and property losses," a spokesman with the Qinghai Provincial Emergency Office said.
Yushu is a sparsely-populated region, but experts said the quake is very likely to cause "heavy" casualties.
"The strong quake has a shallow depth and the epicenter is close to the county seat," said Sun Shihong, an expert with the China Earthquake Administration in Beijing.
"It is estimated there will be heavy casualties, as the quake occurred in the early morning and most of the local residents were yet to get up," he said.
"We do not know whether the previous 4.7-magnitude quake had alerted local residents," he said.
"A rescue team of the administration is ready to go to the quake-hit region," he added.