Quake in China's Qinghai

2010-04-14 08:48:16 - 2010-04-14 11:23 China's Qinghai Province Earthquake of 7.1-magnitude in Yushu county,western Qinghai province devasted the county killing more than 300 people and 8000 are injured in houses collapsed.

more than 700 soldiers are now struggling to clear away the rubble and rescue the buried people, and 1,000 more will be dispatched, a spokesman with the Qinghai Provincial Emergency Office said.The first group of experts dispatched by the Qinghai provincial government, including 25 doctors and 65 firemen, have left for the quake-hit region.

"Many are buried in the collapsed houses," Zhuohuaxia, a publicity official of Tibetan ethnic group with the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu, told Xinhua."There are still lots of others who are injured and being treated at local hospitals," he said."Our soldiers have pulled 10 people from the collapsed houses, but four of them had died," said Wu Yong, commander of the Yushu Military Area Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army."The death toll may rise further as lots of houses collapsed," he said.

"We are now putting up tents and transporting oxygen to prepare for treating the injured," he said."But roads leading to the airport have been damaged, hampering the rescue efforts," he added.

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.At least three aftershocks have been reported so far, with the biggest being 6.3 magnitude about an hour and 36 minutes later.

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.