Villagers were living outdoors and hospitals were jammed after a strong earthquake shook China's southwest, killing up to three people and injuring as many as 600, officials and state media said yesterday.
Some 92 aftershocks have been felt since the magnitude 5.6 quake struck Ludian County in earthquake-prone Yunnan Province on Tuesday evening, county official Shi Zaiqing said by telephone.
PHOTO: REUTERS
State television reported that three people were killed, after originally giving the figure as five in an earlier broadcast.
Shi put the death toll at two and said 422 people were injured when the quake rolled through the area at 6:26pm. He said residents were evacuated but could not give an exact figure or the extent of damage.
The area's three hospitals "all were packed with injured people," he said.
The quake Tuesday caused 5,175 houses to collapse and damaged thousands more, according to a statement on the county government's Web site.
By yesterday afternoon, the official Xinhua News Agency put the casualties at 600, with 142 injured seriously. The report quoted Deng Xianpei, mayor of Zhaotong, a city where one person was killed.
Residents were living in tents or sleeping outdoors, but summer temperatures were comfortable and supplies of drinking water and food were adequate, Shi said.
"We are very, very busy right now," he said before hanging up abruptly.
In its noon newscast, China Central Television showed huge piles of rubble and partially collapsed brick buildings at the earthquake site. Scores of people, some with bandages around their heads, were crammed into a room apparently serving as a makeshift shelter. Some slept on the floor while others sat on thin mattresses.
Doctors and nurses were shown treating the injured. Trucks delivering emergency supplies to the area drove down a dark, winding road.
An official from the China Seismological Bureau interviewed at the site said about 120,000 people had been affected by the quake, but gave no details. The official, identified only by his surname, Xu, said about 3,000 tents and medical supplies were scheduled to arrive yesterday.
Ludian county, with about 370,000 people, is one of China's poorest areas.
The epicenter was 255km north of Kunming, the provincial capital, Xinhua said.
In November, two quakes measuring magnitude 5.1 and 5.0 rocked the Ludian area, killing four people and injuring 120.
Elsewhere in Yunnan, a magnitude-6.2 tremor in July 2003 killed 16 people, while another last October killed three.
Hou Jiansheng, a seismologist at the China Seismological Bureau, said late Tuesday night that the number of dead and injured in Ludian may rise because "it's a poor rural area and their facilities aren't too good."
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS