The death toll in an earthquake in southwest China rose to four, officials said on Wednesday as hospitals struggled to cope with the nearly 600 injured and rescuers continued searching for survivors.
The quake, which measured 5,6 on the Richter scale, ripped through Ludian county in Yunnan province late on Tuesday, flattening almost 10 000 houses and forcing the evacuation of 50 000 people.
A National Seismological Bureau official said late on Wednesday that the death toll has increased to four, but declined to give other details.
One of the deaths was a four-year-old girl, Zhaotong city’s mayor Deng Xianpei was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying. Of the 594 people injured, 26 were listed in critical condition and 142 as serious.
Xinhua said local hospitals had been overwhelmed by the injured and some had to be treated in courtyards.
The county government on its website said 155 schools had been affected and factories, office buildings and reservoirs had been destroyed or damaged.
Li Ranwan, from the disaster affairs office of the Ludian county civil affairs bureau, said the death toll is likely to rise and food, clothes, medicine and tents are desperately needed.
More than 10 000 houses had collapsed, Xinhua said.
”We expect more casualties to be found because it was dark last night and it wasn’t easy to find people who were buried,” Li said.
”But luckily when the earthquake occurred most people were outside their houses after dinner so not so many people were buried.”
Li added that rescue teams arrived in the worst-hit areas — Taoyuan and Buga townships, about 255km north of the provincial capital, Kunming — early on Wednesday.
”The weather is clear and good for the rescue operation,” said Li. ”When the quake occurred, electricity, telecommunications and water supplies stopped but they are all now back up.”
He said 50 000 people had been evacuated to safer areas with dozens of aftershocks rumbling through the county.
The county has received 3 000 tents, 4 500 quilts and 4 500 items of clothing sent by the Yunnan provincial government, Xinhua said.
The Red Cross Society of China will donate another 300 000 yuan’s (about $36 000) worth of tents, clothes and quilts to the victims, the agency reported.
The earthquake is the third in a year to strike Ludian. Quakes measuring 5,1 and 5 on the Richter scale on November 15 and 26 last year killed four and injured 120.
Ludian, with a population of 378 000, is one of China’s poorest counties, with an average yearly income of just 1 000 yuan ($120), said Xinhua.
The region, which lies just below the Tibetan plateau to the west, is one of China’s most earthquake-prone zones.
The most deadly earthquake in modern Chinese history happened on July 28 1976 in the northern city of Tangshan, when a quake measuring 7,9 on the Richter scale killed 242 000 people.
Although China only takes up 7% of the Earth’s land mass, it accounted for 33% of the world’s major earthquakes of the 20th century. — Sapa-AFP