RESCUE WORKERS sifted through the mud in Sichuan province to unearth thousands of dead after a massive earthquake in the south western part of China yesterday.
The earthquake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale, killed at least 8,500 people, 5,000 of them in a single county, and officials were expecting the death toll to rise sharply as rescue workers made their way to remote areas and the full extent of the damage became clear.
The epicentre of the earthquake was in Wenchuan county, about 92km from Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu, and rescue workers were fearful of what they would find there when they managed to reach the remote area.
Chengdu was relatively untouched by the quake, but the tremor wrought huge damage on the surrounding mountainous areas, many of them Tibetan regions.
Schools suffered particularly in the quake as it happened at about 2.30pm (7.30am Irish time) and many schoolchildren were still in class. About 900 teenagers were buried in the rubble of a collapsed three-storey school building in the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan, where local villagers helped dozens of students out of the dirt and cranes excavated the site, while horrified parents watched. Local media showed footage of weeping relatives and shocked victims reeling from the earthquake.
"Some buried teenagers were struggling to break loose from underneath the ruins while others were crying out for help," the Xinhua news agency reported. At least 50 bodies had been recovered from the school. Another eight schools at least were reported destroyed.
Dubliner Peter Goff, who manages the Bookworm bar and restaurant in Chengdu, said the building had been badly shaken in the quake but all his staff were safe. "All of the staff has been accounted for and friends are all okay," he said.
The affected region is mountainous, bordering the Himalayas and Tibet, with thousands of remote villages near the epicentre joined by mountain passes and high roads, which means getting to many of the victims could take a long time. Witnesses said many thousands were stranded as roads were destroyed.
The quake was so powerful it shook buildings in the capital Beijing and the financial centre Shanghai hundreds of kilometres away, and tremors were felt in Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan. The quake is the worst to hit China in 32 years since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in the northeast, where up to 300,000 died.
Senior rescue worker Li Zaiyuan told Chinese TV it would take many hours to get through to Wenchuan county. He was speaking in Aba prefecture, a Tibetan area that saw serious unrest during the March protests. A terrible human disaster is feared in the county, where 110,000 live.
Thousands of army troops and paramilitary People's Armed Police carrying medical supplies were also headed to the region. Heavy rain drove back four military helicopters heading to the quake centre and was continuing to block rescue efforts. Workers used cranes and diggers to clear the debris on the road leading to the city, much of it caused by landslides.
"We are doing everything we can, but the roads are blanketed with rocks and boulders," said rescue worker Li Chongxi. Rain was expected for the next two days.
One of the worst-hit areas was Beichuan county, part of the Mianyang city municipal area, about 50km from the epicentre. Some 80 per cent of buildings there were reported to have been destroyed, leaving between 3,000 and 5,000 people dead and up to 10,000 injured. Hundreds were also buried in two collapsed chemical plants in Shifang in Sichuan.
Fears of fresh tremors or aftershocks were high, and driving through Sichuan and Chongqing, many vehicles were parked by the roadside as people slept in their cars, fearful of another quake.
President Hu Jintao made a public appeal for everyone to rally behind the relief effort, while Premier Wen Jiabao headed for the disaster zone.