Chinese quake takes 10,000 lives
A monster earthquake killed at least 10,000 people in China Monday and trapped thousands - many of whom clawed their way from beneath demolished factories, homes and schools.
"Please just hold on - people are going to get you out of there!" Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called out to the groans coming from beneath a twisted pile of concrete that had been a hospital in the city of Dujiangyan.
The early-afternoon 7.9-magnitude quake hit Sichuan Province, China's most populated, about 60 miles from the provincial capital of Chengdu, a booming modern high-tech center of 10 million people.
The epicenter was in Wenchuan County, home to 112,000 people and the world's biggest group of endangered giant pandas. There was no word on the fate of man or beast. All communications were cut and rescuers were unable to reach the area.
By nightfall, death toll estimates were soaring and even the normal calm of official Chinese pronouncements was being rattled by the scope of the calamity.
"The situation is worse than we previously estimated and we need more people here to help," said Wen, a professional geologist, who was supervising rescue efforts.
President Bush said America "stands ready to help in any way possible. ... I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy," he said.
The massive quake hit at 2:28 p.m. local time, when kids were in school - and workers at the factory or in office towers. It lasted up to three minutes.
The temblor - the worst to hit China in 30 years - sent skyscrapers swaying 950 miles away in Beijing and beyond.
People ran screaming out of office towers in the Thai capital of Bangkok and the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
There was no damage in Beijing, the city hosting the Olympics in August.
Hundreds of aftershocks were reported in Chengdu, many of them strong enough to send people running outside again. Crowds of people camped out on the city sidewalks.
"We're afraid of all the shaking," said Huang Ju, 52, who sat in a hospital parking lot by her ailing mother sleeping in a hospital bed.
The toll of destruction was mind-numbing:
- In Beichuan County, about 25 miles from the epicenter, 80% of the buildings fell down, killing 5,000 people and injuring 10,000, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
- In the city of Shifang, two chemical plants collapsed, entombing hundreds of workers and spilling more than 80 tons of ammonia, said Xinhua.
- In the county of Dujiangyan, the three-story Juyuan Middle School collapsed with 900 second- and third-graders inside, Xinhua said. Photos showed arms and legs poking up out of a terrible tangle of pulverized concrete and twisted metal.
- Children also were buried under five toppled schools in the city of Deyang and two in Chongqing, Xinhua said. In Xiang'e township, only 100 of the middle school's 420 students lived.
The quake brought down hundreds of cell phone towers, complicating communications in the area, and cut power to millions.
Efforts to reach worst-hit Wenchuan County were hampered by the rugged terrain - the road crosses valleys over soaring bridges connecting one mountaintop to another.
Wenchuan is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading breeding base for the endangered giant panda.
The wildlife reserve was out of contact, and the Wolong PandaCam, which normally broadcasts real-time video of the center's 130 pandas, was offline.
A monster earthquake killed at least 10,000 people in China Monday and trapped thousands - many of whom clawed their way from beneath demolished factories, homes and schools.
"Please just hold on - people are going to get you out of there!" Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called out to the groans coming from beneath a twisted pile of concrete that had been a hospital in the city of Dujiangyan.
The early-afternoon 7.9-magnitude quake hit Sichuan Province, China's most populated, about 60 miles from the provincial capital of Chengdu, a booming modern high-tech center of 10 million people.
The epicenter was in Wenchuan County, home to 112,000 people and the world's biggest group of endangered giant pandas. There was no word on the fate of man or beast. All communications were cut and rescuers were unable to reach the area.
By nightfall, death toll estimates were soaring and even the normal calm of official Chinese pronouncements was being rattled by the scope of the calamity.
"The situation is worse than we previously estimated and we need more people here to help," said Wen, a professional geologist, who was supervising rescue efforts.
President Bush said America "stands ready to help in any way possible. ... I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy," he said.
The massive quake hit at 2:28 p.m. local time, when kids were in school - and workers at the factory or in office towers. It lasted up to three minutes.
The temblor - the worst to hit China in 30 years - sent skyscrapers swaying 950 miles away in Beijing and beyond.
People ran screaming out of office towers in the Thai capital of Bangkok and the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
There was no damage in Beijing, the city hosting the Olympics in August.
Hundreds of aftershocks were reported in Chengdu, many of them strong enough to send people running outside again. Crowds of people camped out on the city sidewalks.
"We're afraid of all the shaking," said Huang Ju, 52, who sat in a hospital parking lot by her ailing mother sleeping in a hospital bed.
The toll of destruction was mind-numbing:
- In Beichuan County, about 25 miles from the epicenter, 80% of the buildings fell down, killing 5,000 people and injuring 10,000, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
- In the city of Shifang, two chemical plants collapsed, entombing hundreds of workers and spilling more than 80 tons of ammonia, said Xinhua.
- In the county of Dujiangyan, the three-story Juyuan Middle School collapsed with 900 second- and third-graders inside, Xinhua said. Photos showed arms and legs poking up out of a terrible tangle of pulverized concrete and twisted metal.
- Children also were buried under five toppled schools in the city of Deyang and two in Chongqing, Xinhua said. In Xiang'e township, only 100 of the middle school's 420 students lived.
The quake brought down hundreds of cell phone towers, complicating communications in the area, and cut power to millions.
Efforts to reach worst-hit Wenchuan County were hampered by the rugged terrain - the road crosses valleys over soaring bridges connecting one mountaintop to another.
Wenchuan is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading breeding base for the endangered giant panda.
The wildlife reserve was out of contact, and the Wolong PandaCam, which normally broadcasts real-time video of the center's 130 pandas, was offline.
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