Rescue teams clawed with their bare hands through the rubble of schools and mud-built homes to find survivors of a strong earthquake that has killed about 400 people in northwestern China.
One local official in remote Yushu on the Tibetan plateau said that many more people remained buried in the ruins after 85 per cent of the town had been reduced to rubble by the 7.1 magnitude tremor.
He told state television that he estimated the number of injured at 10,000.
“It is still early and we are trying to find out so we don’t have a clear figure yet,” said Pubu Tsering, a director of the rescue work.
His own mother was among the dead. “I went to my home and found it had collapsed. My mother was inside. She was among the victims.”
The earthquake struck at 7.49am local time, when many people were still at home asleep. It was followed by a series of strong aftershocks that toppled most of the low-rise brick and mud-packed residential buildings in the town.
Residents fled their homes as the first tremor struck. Karsum Nyima, Yushu county’s head of news, said: “In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake. In a small park, there is a Buddhist tower and the top of the tower fell off.”
He said: “Everybody is out on the streets, standing in front of their houses, trying to find their family members.”
State television showed blurred pictures of troops and rescue teams scrabbling at the rubble with their bare hands and trying to remove fallen concrete blocks with shovels.
Mr Tsering said: “We have just a few mechanical diggers here and we are using those also to look for the missing.”
Television showed some of the 700 troops already on the scene bringing a young teacher out of her collapsed school. At least 20 children were still believed to be inside and about 40 bodies had been found.
A teacher at the Yushu primary school said that all the buildings in the school had collapsed and five pupils were dead. The school has about 1,000 students.
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