Olmstein
14th April 2010, 03:26 AM
Related to the recent solar eruptions?
Reporting from Beijing
An earthquake that Chinese officials measured at magnitude 7.1 rocked a remote, mostly Tibetan-populated county in western China early Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring at least 8,000, according to state television reports.
The quake struck in Qinghai province about 20 miles from the county seat of Yushu, where it toppled houses, an elementary school and part of a Buddhist tower in a public park and seriously damaged the main hospital in town, officials told Chinese media.
"In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake," one witness said.
Yushu is about 500 miles southwest of Qinghai's capital, Xining, and has a mostly Tibetan population of 100,000 people, many of them herdsmen in the mountainous, rural area.
Numerous houses made of mud and logs in the traditional manner collapsed during the quake and its aftershocks.
"The death toll may rise further as lots of houses collapsed," army commander Wu Yong told the state-run China Daily. "Roads leading to the airport have been damaged, hampering the rescue effort."
In Jiegu, a township near the epicenter, more than 85% of the houses had collapsed, said Zhuo Huaxia, a local Tibetan official.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-china-quake14-2010apr14,0,1449975.story
Reporting from Beijing
An earthquake that Chinese officials measured at magnitude 7.1 rocked a remote, mostly Tibetan-populated county in western China early Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring at least 8,000, according to state television reports.
The quake struck in Qinghai province about 20 miles from the county seat of Yushu, where it toppled houses, an elementary school and part of a Buddhist tower in a public park and seriously damaged the main hospital in town, officials told Chinese media.
"In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake," one witness said.
Yushu is about 500 miles southwest of Qinghai's capital, Xining, and has a mostly Tibetan population of 100,000 people, many of them herdsmen in the mountainous, rural area.
Numerous houses made of mud and logs in the traditional manner collapsed during the quake and its aftershocks.
"The death toll may rise further as lots of houses collapsed," army commander Wu Yong told the state-run China Daily. "Roads leading to the airport have been damaged, hampering the rescue effort."
In Jiegu, a township near the epicenter, more than 85% of the houses had collapsed, said Zhuo Huaxia, a local Tibetan official.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-china-quake14-2010apr14,0,1449975.story