PANZHIHUA, Sichuan, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-two
people were dead after an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit
Panzhihua City in southwest China on Saturday.
Photo taken on Aug. 31 shows a house in Renhe District of Panzhihua City, southwest China's Sichuan Province,
is damaged in an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter
scale that hits Panzhihua Aug. 30, 2008. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
As of 9 p.m., 17 people were reported dead and about
100 others injured in Sichuan, and five people dead and 35 others injured in
neighboring Yunnan Province.
The quake struck the juncture of Renhe District of
Panzhihua and Huili County of Liangshan Prefecture at 4:30 p.m. (Beijing time).
The epicenter was about 50 km southeast of downtown Panzhihua, at 26.2 degrees
north and 101.9 degrees east and at a depth of 10 km, the National Seismograph
Network Center said.
In Panzhihua, a 54-year-old man was killed in debris
in Miyi County and another person was killed Yanbian County. Nearly 1,000 houses
were destroyed and cracks appeared in walls of more than 400 houses.
A man injured in the earthquake is treated at a local hospital in Panzhihua City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Aug. 30, 2008. 22 people have been found dead and over 100 injured after an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit Panzhihua on Saturday afternoon. (Xinhua/Photomall) (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
In the affected counties of Liangshan Prefecture, 86
people were injured, and many houses were destroyed or in dangerous conditions.
The number of people buried in the ruins were not immediately available.
The quake also affected Chuxiong Prefecture in Yunnan
Province, leaving five people dead and 26 others were injured, 11 severely, as
of 8:30 p.m., said Mengfu, a prefecture government official.
The casualties in Yunnan were reported in Yongren,
Yuanmou, Wuding and Dayao counties, in which four deaths were in Yuanmou, about
55 km from the epicenter, and another in Yongren, about 30 km from the
epicenter.
"Locals in the county rushed out into the open.
Cracks appeared on house walls and many windows were broken," said Zheng
Zhouwei, a local legislator in Yongren.
Yunan's capital, Kunming, about 150 km from the
epicenter, and Sichuan's capital of Chengdu both felt the tremor.
Another above magnitude-6 quake was not expected in
the stricken area in the next two weeks, said Liu Jie, an expert at the National
Seismograph Network Center.
The China Earthquake Administration initiated a
level-three disaster control emergency response for the quake and required
thelocal earthquake bureaus to step up efforts for quake monitoring and loss
evaluation.
Working teams and seismic experts from China
Earthquake Administration, and Sichuan and Yunnan provincial earthquake bureaus
were heading for the stricken area.
The Yunnan provincial civil affairs bureau and the
Yunnan Red Cross Society had sent a total of 3,400 tents and 2,000 quilts to the
stricken area for disaster relief.
Heavy rain and rugged terrain greatly hampered the
rescue efforts.
Due to poor communication, detailed casualties were
still under calculation.
An average 118 people live on one sq km in the
quake-stricken area.
