CHINA EARTHQUAKE: Kills 1,144 in Qinghai province

A rapid series of strong earthquakes hit a mountainous and impoverished area of China’s Qinghai province early Wednesday, killing 1,144 people, state-run media said, quoting local quake relief headquarters.

RELEIF NOT REACHING FAST

At least 10,000 others were injured, the Xinhua news agency reported, and many victims, including school children, were buried under debris. Rescuers were struggling to clear debris with their hands and save those trapped below.

Nearly 60 of the dead were students at several schools in the province, authorities told Xinhua, and more than 50 are trapped in the debris with little chance of rescue.

Xinhua reported that 25 students were rescued from a vocational school, and another 23 from a primary school. Relief flights carrying medical workers and supplies have been landing in Yushu airport but the road to the town of 70,000 people has been blocked by a landslide, the Associated Press news agency reports from Qinghai’s provincial capital, Xining.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for an all-out effort to save as many people as possible and some 5,000 rescuers, including 700 soldiers, have been sent to the disaster area.

The civil affairs ministry said it was to send 5,000 tents, 50,000 coats and 50,000 quilts as local officials in Yushu reported a lack of tents, medicines and medical equipment. China has received messages of sympathy and offers of aid from foreign states including Japan, Russia and France.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs plans to distribute 5,000 tents, 50,000 coats and 50,000 quilts to the earthquake zone, Xinhua said.

The Hong Kong Red Cross said it had mobilized 200,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $27,700) to support the relief operation through providing tents, quilts, clothes and food to victims.

The headquarters of the Red Cross Society of China was also sending relief supplies and had dispatched a team to the area for assessment, the organization said in a statement.