Cars are buried in the debris of collapsed buildings in Dujiangyan, China, after an earthquake, May 12, 2008

Chinese rescuers search a collapsed building for survivors in Beichuan, southwest China's Sichuan province on May 13, 2008, after an earthquake measuring 7.8 rocked the province.

 

By Aaron Sheldrick and Eugene Tang

May 12, 2008 (Bloomberg) -- China was hit by a magnitude-7.9 earthquake, the nation's strongest in 58 years, killing more than 8,700 people. The temblor in Sichuan province shook buildings in Beijing, more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away.

The quake struck at 2:28 p.m., 90 kilometers west-northwest of the central city of Chengdu, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The temblor struck at a depth of 10 kilometers. A magnitude-6 quake struck the area, home to 11 million people, about 15 minutes later. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan, site of 40 percent of China's gas deposits and its largest panda reserve.

``The epicenter of today's quake was shallow, which means it released more destructive energy,'' Zhang Guomin, a researcher at the China Seismology Bureau, told the state-run Xinhua News Agency. ``We have to guard against mudslides and collapsing buildings.''

The death toll in the province is at least 8,700, Xinhua said, with as many as 5,000 killed and 10,000 injured in one county, Beichuan. Rescuers recovered at least 50 bodies from the debris of a high school in the city of Dujiangyan, about 100 kilometers from the epicenter, Xinhua said. As many as 900 students were buried in the rubble.

Older Buildings

The death toll may rise, Deng Changwen, a spokesman for the Sichuan provincial seismological bureau, was quoted as saying by Xinhua. Troops and a 180-man rescue team have been sent to Wenchuan, one of the closest population centers to the quake, Xinhua said. The quake was originally reported as magnitude 7.8 before it was revised by the USGS today.

``The rescue efforts will be focused on the older parts of the city, where there are older buildings that aren't well reinforced,'' Deng said.

Five other schools collapsed in the province's Deyang City, leaving an unknown number of students buried, Xinhua said. Four students were killed and at least 100 were injured when two schools collapsed in Liangping county of Chongqing municipality, adjacent to Sichuan. Chongqing is about 350 kilometers from the epicenter of the temblor.

Buildings in Beijing shook for more than three minutes and traffic stopped. Construction cranes ceased work, while hundreds of people were seen scrambling to get out of buildings including the China World Tower, one of the tallest structures in the Chinese capital.

Felt in Bangkok

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage in the capital. Shaking was felt as far as Hong Kong and Bangkok in Thailand, 1,950 kilometers away.

The quake sparked panic in cities and towns across Sichuan and other central provinces, Xinhua said. No damage was reported at the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric dam, Xinhua said.

The quake damaged more than 2,000 China Mobile Ltd. base stations, Vice President Sha Yuejia said in an interview broadcast on state-run China Central Television.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange said trading in Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Chongqing Iron & Steel Co. and 43 other listed companies based in Sichuan province and Chongqing city was suspended until they provide investors with trading updates.

The quake may help fuel increases in corn and soybeans after the disaster threatened to disrupt domestic supplies, analysts said.

Transportation Disruption

``The earthquake in China is going to cause major disruption in transportation,'' which could boost demand for U.S. grain and meat imports, said Roy Huckabay, an executive vice president for the Linn Group in Chicago. ``Chinese soybean prices soared overnight,'' a sign of increased demand for available supplies, Huckabay said.

Chinese carriers including China Eastern Airlines Corp. halted flights to some cities hit by the quake.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. who described the earthquake as a ``disaster,'' called for calm and ordered immediate relief work, according to state media, while President Hu Jintao issued an order for an immediate response from government agencies, according to Xinhua.

Today's earthquake was the world's strongest since a 7.9- magnitude temblor struck Indonesia in September, according to the USGS. It was the biggest to hit China since a magnitude-8.6 quake struck Tibet in 1950, killing 1,526 people. China's deadliest disaster was a 7.5-magnitude quake that killed 250,000 people in northeastern China's Tangshan in 1976.

The U.S. Geological Survey defines an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more as ``major,'' and one above 8 as ``great.''

Bush Comments

There are 17 quakes measuring 7 to 7.9 annually worldwide on average, USGS said on its Web site, with five occurring so far this year. On average, there is one temblor annually measuring 8 or more.

``I extend my condolences to those injured and to the families of the victims of today's earthquake in China's Sichuan province,'' U.S. President George W. Bush said in a statement issued by the White House. ``I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy. The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the Chinese people, especially those directly affected. The United States stands ready to help in any way possible.''

Hundreds of employees were evacuated from skyscrapers in the Lujiazui district of Shanghai, the city's financial center, where the stock exchange and banks including Citigroup Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc have offices. No damage was reported.

Sichuan produced about 22 percent of the nation's natural gas output in 2006, according to China National Petroleum Corp. and BP Plc's annual energy report.

Power, Water Supplies

PetroChina Co., a unit of China National Petroleum, hasn't yet received any reports of damage at its fields in the earthquake zone, spokesman Mao Zefeng said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. closed outlets in Chengdu after the shaking knocked goods off shelves, Dong Yuguo, a spokesman, said by telephone. Power and water supplies inside the stores were also down, he said.

Ford Motor Co. Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. said there was no immediate damage to their factories in Sichuan, Chongqing and other areas.

The Ministry of Railways said it hadn't received any reports of interruptions to services, Yang Xue, an official, said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net; Eugene Tang in Beijing at eugenetang@bloomberg.net.

    BEIJING, May 12 ,2008 (Xinhua) -- After eight hours of frantic worry, Ai Fumei finally managed to get news of her relatives in Wenchuan county, the epicenter of the deadly earthquake that rocked southwest China.

    "Although I won't sleep tonight, I feel some relief now," said Ai Fumei in Ningxia.

Editor: Mu Xuequan  
 

BEIJING, May 12, 2008  (Xinhua) -- Monday's strong earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province have caused multiple landslides and collapses along railway lines near the provincial capital Chengdu, leaving 180 trains stranded on the rails.

    Tremors were also reported in over half of China's provinces and municipalities, the China Seismological Bureau said.

Editor: Mu Xuequan  
 

The country's deadliest quake in three decades hit central China Monday.

from the May 13, 2008 edition

The country appears to be well prepared for such an operation, says Roger Musson, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh. "They are very good at putting together a disaster relief plan rather quickly."

More than 6,000 soldiers and militarized police were dispatched to the disaster area, carrying out standing orders in the event of an earthquake, a military spokesman said.

The next few days will reveal to what extent buildings in this part of central China were equipped to withstand a disaster such as this – the country's deadliest since 1976 with at least 8,500 dead as of press time.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who flew to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, less than two hours after the quake hit, told reporters en route that government leaders have "asked officials at all levels to be at the front line of the fighting the earthquake and lead the people in their rescue work."

"I believe we can certainly overcome the disaster with the public and the military working together," he added in a televised statement.

Vast improvements in disaster relief

China's annual buffeting from typhoons has led the authorities to build an efficient disaster relief structure, according to Xue Lan, professor of public administration at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

"One dramatic improvement is in life-saving" says Professor Xue. "Death tolls have been falling in recent years even though typhoons have been getting fiercer. China is doing much better than it used to, and than other developing countries [are]."

As well as passing a special law on emergency management last year, setting out the government's responsibilities, China has built a regional network of emergency management offices, reporting to the State Council, which acts as the government's cabinet.

In a Category 1 disaster, as Monday's quake was declared, local officials are authorized to ignore normal chains of command and report directly to the top levels of government, according to Mao Shoulong, professor of public policy at Renmin University in Beijing.

In addition to the thousands of soldiers and police dispatched to the epicenter in Wenchuan county, emergency medical teams were sent from major cities on the east coast to the quake zone.

Their departure displayed a speed of official response that critics said had been lacking during China's last natural disaster, blizzards that gripped the south of the country last January.

A magnitude of 7.8

The epicenter of Monday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake was in Sichuan, about 57 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu. It hit in the middle of the afternoon – when classes and offices were full.

At one school about 60 miles from the epicenter, nearly 900 students were trapped under rubble, the Associated Press reported, citing Chinese state media. At least seven other schools in the region had collapsed, according to Xinhua, as well as chemical plants and at least one hospital.

As many as 10,000 in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County were feared injured and 80 percent of the buildings there had been destroyed, Xinhua reported. There had been more than 300 aftershocks, state television said.

Nightfall, severed communications, and blocked roads have hampered rescue efforts. The overall death toll from this earthquake – with tremors reaching as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand – is expected to rise in coming days.

"Anything greater than [a magnitude of] 7 is very significant," says Mike Haggerty, a seismologist Weston Observatory at Boston College in Weston, Mass. "The magnitude is 7.8, and that's the exactly the same magnitude of the 1976 Tangshen earthquake." About one quarter of a million people died in that natural disaster thirty year ago.

The key difference between the quakes on Monday and in 1976 was location, says Mr. Musson, the seismologist.

"The 1976 earthquake occurred extremely close to Tangshan. The city was really sitting on top of the fault.... The good aspect is that this occurred in a remote area. The bad aspect is the population has increased," he says.

The shallowness of Monday's earthquake will also contribute to the extent of the damage, Mr. Haggerty warns.

Peter Smith contributed from Boston. Wire material was also used.  
 

China quake buries hundreds, kills at least 8,533

Updated Mon. May. 12 2008 3:35 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The death toll is expected to rise dramatically in China's Sichuan province after a massive earthquake struck the region Monday morning.

The official number of dead is listed at 8,533, but there are fears the figure will increase due to the number of buildings that have suffered major damage. In Sichuan's Beichan county alone, about 80 per cent of buildings have collapsed.

Ten thousand people are estimated to be injured, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The 7.9-magnitude quake -- originally estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to be 7.8 -- struck at 2:28 p.m. local time, when office buildings, factories and schools were full. Nearly 900 Chinese students were feared buried after two schools collapsed in the municipality of Chongqing.

Xinhua reported that four of the dead were ninth-grade students killed when their high school in Jutuan township about 100 kilometres from the quake eipcentre, collapsed.

Photos showed cranes trying to remove the rubble of the collapsed building, though there were no estimates of how many more students may have been killed.

There were reports of teenagers struggling to get free of the rubble of the three-story building, as others cried out for help.

The quake made buildings sway in Beijing, about 2,000 kilometres away, and was also felt in Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and as far away as Pakistan.

"We're really in the very early stages," Francis Markus of the Red Cross Federation told Canada AM from Beijing. "We don't know what the situation is at the heart of these earthquake-stricken areas."

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake's epicentre is 92 kilometres northwest of Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, and 10 kilometres below the surface.

Ten million people live in Chengdu, best known for its giant panda breeding centre. Sichuan province is also home to about 1,200 pandas, which constitute about 80 per cent of the surviving panda population in the wild.

The joint UN-European Commission's Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, or GDAC, said a quake of this magnitude could cause damage up to 97 kilometres from the epicentre.

Xinhua said the quake occurred in a sparsely populated, mountainous area, with about 110,000 people living there.

In Aba prefecture of Sichuan province, government officials said buildings had cracked and collapsed. Roads through the mountains were damaged.

Calls to emergency numbers in Chengdu went unanswered. A resident whom The Associated Press reached by telephone said there was no sign of damages.

Xinhua said China's Premier Wen Jiabao is heading to the worst-hit area.

Markus said the Red Cross and Chinese government are sending planes with experts and equipment to the disaster area.

The quake came as China prepared to host the Olympic Games this summer. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge wrote to China's president, telling the Chinese people that "The Olympic Movement is at your side, especially during these difficult moments."

As news trickled in throughout the day about the extent of the damage, Rogge said: "This appears to be a major disaster, the scale of which is only just becoming apparent."

With files from The Associated Press  

© Thomson Reuters 2008  

August 13, 2004
AP

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media now reports the death toll from the massive earthquake that hit the country on Monday now exceeds 12,000 in Sichuan province alone.
A day after the powerful 7.9 magnitude quake struck Monday afternoon, state media said rescue workers had reached the epicenter in Wenchuan county — where the number of casualties was still unknown.

But rain was impeding efforts and a group of paratroopers called off a mission to the area due to heavy storms, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The death toll rose to 11,921, said Wang Zhenyao, disaster relief division director at the Ministry of Civil Affairs. At least 4,800 people remained buried in Mianzhu, 60 miles from the epicenter, Xinhua said, citing local authorities.

The casualty figures were expected to rise and remained uncertain due to the remote areas affected by the quake and difficulty in finding buried victims.

‘TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE'

The tremors caused a wide swath of damage across central China, sending people fleeing with their few salvaged belongings. Earthquake rescue experts in orange jumpsuits extricated bloody survivors on stretchers from demolished buildings, and some 34,000 troops swarmed into the region to help.

Photo: Local residents run to get away from fallen rock in aftershock in the earthquake-affected Mianyang, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Tuesday, May 13, 2008. The death toll from a powerful earthquake in China that toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants climbed Tuesday to about 10,000, while untold numbers remained trapped after the country's worst quake in three decades. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

But hope was fleeting as bodies covered with sheets lined streets and filled schoolyards. Only 58 people were extricated from collapsed buildings across the quake area, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told Xinhua, as rescuers raced to save more.

"Time is of the essence," said disaster relief director Wang, adding that rescue efforts could take a week.

"Survivors can hold on for some time. Now it's not time to give up," Wang told reporters in Beijing.

Aftershocks rattled the region for a second day, sending people running into the streets in the city of Chengdu. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the shocks between magnitude 4 and 6, some of the strongest since Monday's quake.

A 40-car freight train derailed in the quake that included 13 gasoline tankers was still burning Tuesday, Xinhua said, with no word on casualties.
 

Wounded residents lay on beds to receive treatment after Monday's powerful earthquake, in Longnan, northwest China's Gansu Province, Tuesday, May 13, 2008. State media reports that the death toll from the earthquake in central China has climbed to nearly 10,000 in the worst-hit province. (Han Chuanhao / AP)

‘I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'LL LIVE’

Zhou Chun, a 70-year-old retired mechanic, was leaving Dujiangyan with a soiled light blue blanket draped over his shoulders.

"My wife died in the quake. My house was destroyed," he said.

"I am going to Chengdu, but I don't know where I'll live."

Zhou and other survivors were pulling luggage and clutching plastic bags of food amid a steady drizzle and the constant wall of ambulances.

Just east of the epicenter, 1,000 students and teachers were killed or missing at a collapsed high school in Beichuan county — a more than six-story building reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high, according to Xinhua. The deaths were separate from another leveled school in Dujiangyan where 900 students are feared dead.

Xinhua said up to 5,000 people were killed and 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan, in a region of small cities and towns set amid steep hills north of Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu. The government has poured more than 16,000 troops into the area with tens of thousands more on the way.

China's Xinhua News Agency showed two wounded men receive medical treatment outside makeshift tents a day after a 7.9-magnitude quake struck Sichuan Province, in neighboring Ningqiang County, north China's Shaanxi Province, on Tuesday, May 13, 2008. (Tao Ming / AP)

In Dujiangyan, rescue teams were trying to get to a woman who was eight months pregnant and trapped in a seven-story apartment building that collapsed.

Nearby, a man in his late 50s who refused to give his name, said his father was missing in the rubble of his home. "Yesterday, when the earthquake happened our home collapsed really quickly and I heard my father yell, ‘Help, help, help,’” the man said.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to the area to oversee rescue efforts, said a push was on to clear roads and restore electricity as soon as possible.

"We must try our best to open up roads to the epicenter and rescue people trapped in disaster-hit areas," he told an early morning emergency meeting in Dujiangyan.

China's Ministry of Health issued an appeal for blood donations to help the victims of the quake.

Fifteen missing British tourists were believed in that area at the time of the quake and were "out of reach," Xinhua reported.

They were likely visiting the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 100 giant pandas, whose fate also was not known, Xinhua said. Xinhua reported that 60 pandas at another breeding center in Chengdu were safe.

Soldiers carted the wounded out of the rubble in Sichuan Province, China, on Tuesday after the deadly earthquake that rocked China the day before. (By Chen Xie, Xinhua via AP)

ANOTHER EVENT TO TARNISH OLYMPIC RUN-UP

The disaster comes less than three months before the start of the Beijing Olympics. The tragedy is just the latest event to tarnish the run-up to the event meant to showcase China's rise that has been marked by internal strife and anti-China sentiment abroad.

The Olympics torch relay will continue unaltered through the quake-affected area next month, Beijing organizers said.

Expressions of sympathy and offers of help poured in from the United States, Japan and the European Union, among others.

The government said it would welcome outside aid. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said relief authorities "are ready to make contact with relevant countries and organizations."

Photo: Rescuers search for victims in the debris of a hospital after the earthquake in Dujiangyan, in southwest China's Sichuan province. (AP)

Russia was sending a plane with rescuers and aid, the country's Interfax news agency reported.

AID, BUT NOT AID WORKERS, WELCOME

But Wang, the disaster relief official, said international aid workers would not be allowed to travel to the affected area.

"We welcome funds and supplies, we can't accommodate personnel at this point," he said.

China's Ministry of Finance said it had allocated around $123 million in aid for quake-hit areas.

The quake was China's deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing in 1976.

Financial analysts said the quake would have only a limited impact on the country's booming economy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24589987/

 

China earthquake:
Race to plug dam as death toll rises to 15,000

Two thousand Chinese soldiers are working to plug an "extremely dangerous" cracks in a dam upriver from the earthquake-hit town of Dujiangyan.

The new criss comes as rescue workers are struggling to reach nearly 60,000 people who remain missing near the epicentre of the Sichuan earthquake, prompting fears that the death toll will continue to soar.

This morning officials speaking from the epicentre of Monday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province said that entire towns in the area had been 'razed to the ground' and left without a single house standi

A British embassy rapid reaction team this morning flew into Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, to help co-ordinate the search for Britons who went missing after the disaster.

The British ambassador to China, Sir William Ehrman, also arrived in Chengdu this morning to help trace 19 members of a tour party that was in a coach travelling to the Wolong panda reserve when the earthquake struck on Monday.

Today China poured 50,000 troops into Sichuan in an attempt to find any remaining survivors of the earthquake among the mud, rubble and tangled buildings.

But they had to battle to get through landslides which had cut off Wenchuan county, and poor weather conditions continued to hamper aid efforts.

Just under 19,000 people are believed to have been buried under debris in Mianyang - one of the cities worst affected.

One steam turbine factory just outside was almost wiped out by the quake, and 500 workers and their family members were missing, local media reported.

Amid the grief, however, there was cause for hope of finding more survivors today in the levelled villages that lie under the White Cloud Mountain.

Behind these mountains lie the epicentre of the Sichuan earthquake, where reports from the first rescuers speak of tens of thousands of missing and dead.

In Wudu village, some 20 miles from the epicentre, most of the brick and tile houses have collapsed. The worst building affected was the school, where 130 children have been brought out dead, and another 150 are buried beneath the rubble.

But all morning rescuers had heard the weak voice of a 12-year-old boy crying out from beneath. His leg was trapped under a concrete stanchion, but two more were balanced against each other to protect him in a triangle of space.

A nurse from the village clinic managed to attach an intravenous drip to his arm before he lapsed into unconsciousness.

First a crane and then, more gently, workers from the local volunteer rescue team lifted away chunks of concrete. Finally, there were calls for the doctor, then, a few minutes later, shouts and applause.

When they brought him down on a stretcher, he looked weak, but he was still breathing. Locals said his name was Li Ke as he was rushed away to an ambulance.

Yang Jie, head of the volunteer team, put together four years ago to deal with exactly this sort of emergency, warned it was too soon to say if he would survive.

“We brought out one or two yesterday who were still alive but died later,” she said. “This boy’s pulse was weak.”

The primary school was just starting afternoon lessons when the building shook. “I didn’t know what was happening, I just ran,” said Li Tingting, 12. “Then a teacher pulled me clear. I am one of three or four in my class who survived.”

Relatives came to dig out the rubble themselves while they waited for the army to arrive. Zhang Wanling, 56, rescued his two-year-old granddaughter from the kindergarten, a separate building still standing, though at a crazy angle.

In any case, there is little other consolation for the villages of this region immediately to the east of Wenchuan, the epicentre.

Whole streets of houses and shops have collapsed. Elsewhere in Wudu, outside the primary school, scores of people are said to have died, including most of the village officials. Forty are still buried.

Further into the mountains, the village of Baiguo lost 60 people, including 18 from its small school of 40 children. Two remain underneath, but the army have given up the search, and moved on to other parts of the disaster.

Village after village has a similar story. In all, this county is known to have lost more than 2,000 dead, a conservative estimate. In neighbouring Wenchuan, rescuers say 60,000 people are unaccounted for, while in Beichuan to the north there are also thousands missing.

Meanwhile, all along the roads, local people are pouring into the towns in the search of shelter and food. “Water is now the most important thing,” said Gao Kaiying, a Baiguo kindergarten teacher.

Trucks were beginning to travel up the main roads carrying boxes of noodles and biscuits, only to be stormed by desperate crowds. “They had better set up a distribution system, or we will be stealing what we can,” said one man.

In Mianzhu, where rescuers said the death toll had risen to 3,000, about 500 people were pulled out alive from crushed buildings.

A team of 1,300 soldiers and medical staff arrived on foot in Wenchuan, the county where the earthquake struck just before 2.30pm on Monday.

In Yingxiu, a town of 12,000 people, only 2,300 had been found alive, He Biao, the director of the prefecture's emergency office, told state television.

In another south-western town, 80 per cent of homes had collapsed, along with roads and bridges, and altogether in the county 60,000 people were unaccounted for, he said.

"They could hear people under the debris calling for help, but no one could, because there were no professional rescue teams," he said.

The People's Liberation Army said 50,000 troops were working in the affected region. But, though paratroops have been ordered to drop into Wenchuan, helicopter operations are being hampered by heavy rain and fog across much of the area.

"What we most need is medicine," Mr He said. "There is no medicine, there are no doctors and after such a long time, no food."

British agencies including Oxfam and Save the Children are helping with the relief effort, sending expert teams to the region. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, praised China's "exemplary" response to disaster, in comparison to the "callous" response of the Burmese authorities.

Even if a majority of the missing are found safe and well, the number of deaths is sure to escalate well beyond the 12,000 so far confirmed.

The Olympic torch relay will be scaled back to mark the disaster, organisers said.

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• China earthquake: Eyewitness accounts
• My Telegraph: We are alive
• China earthquake: Parents mourn as school rescue effort returns bodies in shrouds
• China earthquake: Rescuers battle to reach trapped students
• China earthquake brings out citizen journalists
• China earthquake: Fears grow for Britons

• China earthquake: Death toll rises to 15,000

• China earthquake 'worse than feared'

• 400 killed as quake reduces Iranian villages to rubble

• Quake wrecks villages near Morocco coast

• 'We can bring more out alive'

WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer
5-15-08

LUOSHUI TOWN, China - Troops dug burial pits in this quake-shattered town and black smoke poured from crematorium chimneys elsewhere in central China as priorities began shifting Thursday from the hunt for survivors to dealing with the dead. Officials said the final toll could more than double to 50,000.

As the massive military-led recovery operation inched farther into regions cut off by Monday's quake, the government sought to enlist the public's help with an appeal for everything from hammers to cranes and, in a turnabout, began accepting foreign aid missions, the first from regional rival Japan.

Millions of survivors left homeless or too terrified to go indoors faced their fourth night under tarpaulins, tents or nothing at all as workers patched roads and cleared debris to reach more outlying towns in the disaster zone.

On Friday, Chinese President Hu Jintao flew to Sichuan to support victims and express "appreciation to the public and cadres in the disaster zone," the Xinhua said.

State media said that rescuers had finally reached all 58 counties and townships severely damaged.

Health officials said there have been no outbreaks of disease so far, with workers rushing to inoculate survivors against disease, supply them with drinking water, and find ways to dispose of an overwhelming number of corpses.

"There are still bodies in the hills, and pits are being dug to bury them," said Zhao Xiaoli, a nurse in the ruined town of Hanwang. "There's no way to bring them down. It's too dangerous."

But the ministry said on its Web site that to prevent disease, bodies should be cleaned on the spot and buried as soon as possible.

Troops in the town of Luoshui in a quake-ravaged area used a mechanical shovel to dig a pit on a hilltop. Two bodies wrapped in white sheets lay beside it. Down the hill sat four mounds of lime.

In a sign of nervousness, 50 troops lined the road outside Luoshui. Five farmers watched them dig the burial pit, after performing brief funerary rites. Local police detained an Associated Press reporter and photographer who took photos of the scene, holding them in a government compound for 3 1/2 hours before releasing them without explanation.

Across the quake zone in Dujiangyan, troops in face masks collected corpses and loaded them onto a flatbed truck. Thick black smoke streamed from the twin chimneys of the town's crematorium.

Fears about damage to a major dam in the quake zone appeared to ease. The Zipingpu dam had reportedly suffered cracks from the disaster, but there was no repair work or extra security at the dam when it was reached Thursday by an AP photographer, indicating the threat to the structure had likely passed.

People trying to hike into Wenchuan walked on top of the dam as water spilled from an outlet, lowering levels in the reservoir and alleviating pressure on the dam.

Just behind the dam, soldiers set up a staging area preparing speed boats to lower into the reservoir and ferry soldiers in lifejackets, engineers and medical staff up river to Yingxiu, a town flattened by the quake.

The government says "the dam will hold, but then the longer-term question is what to do with it — to keep it or dismantle it," said Andrew Mertha of Washington University in St. Louis, author of a book on Chinese dams, China's Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change,

The emergency headquarters of the State Council, China's Cabinet, said the confirmed death toll had reached 19,509 — up more than 4,500 from the day before. The council said deaths could rise to 50,000, state media reported.

The provincial government said more than 12,300 remained buried and another 102,100 were injured in Sichuan, where the quake was centered.

Experts said hope was quickly fading for anyone still caught in the wreckage of homes, schools, offices and factories that collapsed in the magnitude-7.9 quake, the most powerful in three decades in quake-prone China.

"Generally speaking, anyone buried in an earthquake can survive without water and food for three days," said Gu Linsheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University's Emergency Management Research Center. "After that, it's usually a miracle for anyone to survive."

Amazing survival stories did emerge, and were seized on by Chinese media whose blanket coverage has been dominated by images of carnage.

In Dujiangyan, a 22-year-old woman was pulled to safety after more than three days trapped under debris. Covered in dust and peering out through a small opening, she waved and was interviewed by state television as hard-hatted rescuers worked to free her.

"I was confident that you were coming to rescue me. I'm alive. I'm so happy," the unnamed woman said on CCTV.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who has been in the quake zone since Monday, urged those helping the injured to keep up their efforts. Repeating a phrase that has become a government mantra this week, Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang said every effort would be made to find survivors.

"We will never give up hope," Gao told reporters in Beijing. "For every thread of hope, our efforts will increase a hundredfold. We will never give up."

With more than 130,000 soldiers and police mobilized in the relief effort, roads were cleared Thursday to two key areas that took the brunt of the quake, with workers making it to Wenchuan at the epicenter and also through to Beichuan county, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Communication cables were also reconnected to Wenchuan.

Power was restored to most of Sichuan for the first time since the quake, although Beichuan county remained without electricity, Xinhua said.

Much of the official publicity dwelled on efforts to reach the trapped but actual ground operations focused on delivering food and medical aid to survivors and disposing of the dead.

In Dujiangyan, on the road between the provincial capital of Chengdu and the epicenter, a dozen bodies lay on a sidewalk as police and militia pulverized rubble with cranes and back hoes. The bodies were later lifted onto a flatbed truck, joining some half-dozen corpses.

At the crematorium, some grieving relatives were rushed through funeral rites by harried workers. Scores of bodies lay on concrete in a waiting area — outnumbering the handful of chapels usually used in funerals.

Thick black smoke streamed from the crematorium's pair of chimneys as families cleaned and dressed the dead in funeral clothes, including fresh socks and sneakers for children.

Fireworks were set off every few minutes and families burned incense, candles and spirit money. Such traditions meant to send the dead peacefully into the afterlife were once banned by the communist authorities but have revived in recent years with free-market reforms and rising prosperity. Burial, which likewise the government once tried to stamp out, has become common in the countryside, although still difficult for people in crowded cities.

In an appeal posted on its Web site, the Ministry of Information Industry called on the Chinese to donate rescue equipment including hammers, shovels, demolition tools and rubber boats — 100 cranes were also needed, it said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also issued an emergency appeal for medical help, food, water and tents.

After initially refusing offers of foreign aid workers, China welcomed a Japanese rescue team. Made up of firefighters, police, coast guard and aid officials, the first half of the team arrived in Beijing on Thursday and would head to the disaster area Friday, Xinhua said.

Japan and China have been at odds for years over disputed borders, Japan's treatment of its wartime invasion of China, anti-Japanese protests in China, and general Japanese unease over Beijing's rapidly growing diplomatic, military and economic power. Leaders of the two countries met in Tokyo earlier this month to try to resolve their differences.

The Foreign Ministry said Russian, South Korean and Singaporean teams would join soon.

China had so far received international aid worth more than $100 million and materials worth more than $10 million, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a briefing. But it still needed supplies of tents, clothes, communication equipment, machines for disaster relief, and medicines, he said.

"The Chinese authorities have done a fantastic job mobilizing troops, but troops are not everything. You need specialist teams with equipment otherwise you're not going to find them," said John Holland, operations director of Rapid UK, a search and rescue charity with two decades of experience handling international disasters. ___

Associated Press writers Audra Ang in Mianyang, Christopher Bodeen in Dujiangyan, and Cara Anna and Anita Chang in Beijing contributed to this report.

Survivors pulled from rubble of China quake

5-16-08

BEICHUAN, China - Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Friday who had been buried for four days as a strong aftershock sparked landslides near the epicenter of this week's powerful earthquake.

The first foreign rescue workers since Monday's magnitude 7.9 temblor were allowed to the scene, and helicopters dropped leaflets urging people to "unite together" and providing survival tips. Officials have said the quake's final toll could reach 50,000.

A day past what experts call the critical three-day window for finding survivors, rescuers pulled a nurse to safety who had been trapped for 96 hours in the debris of a clinic in Beichuan county, Xinhua reported.

A call from the ruins of an apartment building drew a group of volunteers, who spent more than four hours using hands and spades to rescue a middle-aged woman. Brought to the surface, she could not speak and was given to medics.

"She had the will to live," said Xu Tao, one of the volunteers, a demobilized soldier and now an office worker in the eastern city of Tangshan. "I'm just exhausted."

About 10 people were pulled free Friday. Survivors also were being found elsewhere, with a man pulled from the wreckage of a fertilizer plant near Shifang city.

An aftershock rattled parts of central Sichuan province Friday afternoon, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing its reporters at the scene. A number of vehicles were buried on a road leading to the epicenter, and casualties were unknown.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the latest tremor measured magnitude 5.5, one of the strongest among dozens that have shaken the area.

Education and housing officials, meanwhile, took the rare move of fielding questions online from angry Chinese citizens over the many children who died in the quake. The official death toll had risen to about 22,069 on Friday, and another 14,000 still were buried in Sichuan.

The government said it would investigate why so many school buildings collapsed in the quake — destroying about 6,900 classrooms, not including the hardest-hit counties — and severely punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction.

More than 4 million apartments and homes had been damaged or destroyed in Sichuan province, according to Housing Minister Jiang Weixin. Jiang said the water supply situation was "extremely serious" in Sichuan, and not flowing at all in 20 cities and counties.

Caring for the untold tens of thousands or more survivors across the earthquake zone was stretching government resources.

Shifang's town square became a tented encampment holding 2,000 people and coordinator Li Yuanshao said there weren't enough tents. Many had walked from surrounding towns with few belongings.

"We brought almost nothing, only the clothes we are wearing," said Zhang Xinyong, a junior in high school who had walked several hours to the camp. They were sleeping on donated bamboo mats and blankets.

In the town of Yingxiu, helicopters dropped leaflets urging people to "unite together" and giving survival tips like not to drink dirty water. Power and water remained cut off, forcing dazed, exhausted locals to hike 40 yards up a steep hill to a spring to fetch water.

On another hillside, at least 80 corpses in plastic body bags were placed into a trench dug by soldiers.

Dozens of people trudged up a winding mountain road to Beichuan, carrying backpacks and bags with food and medical supplies, on a quest for missing relatives.

Liu Jingyong, a 43-year-old migrant worker searching for his cousin, traveled two days by bus and now foot just to get near his relative's home.

"I have not had any information from him," Liu said. "This is so hard on me."

One villager, Pan Guihui, stood on the side of the road with a vacant look on her face.

She and her husband had just hiked 13 hours with her 1-year-old child, father and two brothers away from their destroyed village further up the mountain. They had stayed in the rubble until rescue workers arrived and ordered them out because of fears of landslides.

"I have just been so frightened this whole time. I don't know what we are going to do," said Pan, 35. The only belongings the family had were some clothes and a little food, among hundreds camped along the road. "We've lost everything. There's nothing left of our village, nothing left of our home."

As she spoke, hundreds of soldiers marched by in long columns out of Beichuan, some carrying shovels.

In the city of Hanwang, Zhou Furen walked hours by foot — borrowing the army green shoes she was wearing — to a factory where her son had worked and remained missing.

"I've been coming here every day, sitting here in the early morning, waiting," she said, weeping. "He's been missing for more than three days now. But for my son I would come every day."

President Hu Jintao made his first trip to the disaster zone, rallying troops among the massive relief operation of some 130,000 soldiers and police.

"The challenge is still severe, the task is still arduous and the time is pressing," Hu was quoted as saying by Xinhua. "Quake relief work has entered into the most crucial phase. We must make every effort, race against time and overcome all difficulties to achieve the final victory of the relief efforts."

The first international rescue crews arrived in the disaster area, after China dropped its initial reluctance to accept foreign personnel. Japanese rescuers started work early Friday, and teams from Russia, Singapore and South Korea later joined operations, Xinhua reported.

It was the first time ever that China accepted outside professionals for domestic disaster relief, Foreign Ministry counselor Li Wenliang told Xinhua.

The government said it had allocated a total of $772 million for earthquake relief, according to the central bank's Web site, up sharply from $159 million two days ago.

China also has received $457 million in donated money and goods for rescue efforts, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, including $83 million from 19 countries and four international organizations.

Given the widespread destruction, AIR Worldwide — a catastrophe risk modeling firm — estimated losses to both insured and uninsured property would likely exceed $20 billion.

___

Associated Press writers Tini Tran in Hanwang and Anita Chang in Beijing contributed to this report. >

Thousands flee on China lake bank fears

Sat 17 May 2008, 18:39 GMT

Chris Buckley and John Ruwitch

BEICHUAN, China (Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese fled their homes on Saturday amid fears a lake could burst its banks, hampering rescue efforts after the deadliest earthquake in more than three decades killed about 29,000 people.

Rescue workers returned to Beichuan county, near the epicentre of the quake, in Sichuan province, but many residents were too frightened to return, nervous about a lake formed after aftershocks triggered landslides blocking the flow of a river.

After briefly evacuating, rescue work returned to normal at Beichuan," an official Web site (www.china.com.cn) said, blaming the evacuation on a false alarm.

A paramilitary officer had told Reuters earlier that the likelihood of the lake bursting its banks was "extremely big".

The situation was "very dangerous because there are still tremors causing landslides that could damage the dam", said Luo Gang, a building worker who left the southeastern port city of Xiamen and rushed home to look for his missing fiancee.

Rescue work had been complicated by bad weather, treacherous terrain and hundreds of aftershocks.

The United States Geological Survey reported a tremor of 6.1 magnitude centred 49 miles (80 km) west of Guangyuan, the latest in a series of aftershocks to hit Sichuan province. China's official Xinhua news agency said there was no immediate word from the area of additional damage or casualties.

"Although the time for the best chance of rescue ... has passed, saving lives remains the top priority of our work," President Hu Jintao told distraught survivors just over a week after a jubilant China celebrated the Olympic torch relay reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

As the weather becomes warmer, survivors were worried about hygiene and asked questions about their longer-term future.

"What we don't need now is more instant noodles," said truck driver Wang Jianhong in the city of Dujiangyan. "We want to know now what will happen with our lives."

Officials plan to distribute 0.5 kg (1.102 lb) of food and a 10 yuan ($1.43) subsidy each day to people with financial difficulties in quake-hit areas for three months, Xinhua reported, after a meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

They also want to install mobile homes, temporary classrooms and clinics for quake-affected people.

PEOPLE TENSE

There has been growing concern about the safety of dams and reservoirs which have been weakened in the mountainous province of Sichuan, an area about the size of Spain.

In Sichuan and neighbouring Chongqing, 17 reservoirs were damaged, with some dams cracked or leaking water. Several are on the Min river, which tumbles through the worst-hit areas between the Tibetan plateau and the Sichuan plain.

The Lianhehua dam, built in the late 1950s northwest of Dujiangyan, showed cracks big enough to put a fist in.

"When the dam is in this shape, we cannot feel relaxed," said farmer Feng Binggui who has moved from his village below the dam into the hills.

China has said it expects the final death toll from Monday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake to exceed 50,000. About 4.8 million people have lost their homes and the days are numbered in which survivors can be found.

Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin, taking a long pause to compose himself as he read from an updated casualty report at a news conference, put the death toll so far at 28,881.

Premier Wen said the quake was "the biggest and most destructive" since before the Communist revolution of 1949 and the quick response had helped reduce casualties.

That compares even with the 1976 tremor in the northern city of Tangshan which killed up to 300,000 people.

Sichuan Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said more than 188,100 people have been injured and about 10,600 people remain buried under rubble. About 2.6 million tents are needed to shelter 4.8 million displaced residents, he added.

A cable repair worker was killed on Saturday, three months before Beijing hosts the summer Olympics, when hit by rocks as a moderate aftershock hit Lixian county.

President Hu lauded rescue workers for their bravery in Wenchuan, epicentre of the quake, when an aftershock struck.

In a glimmer of hope that more people could be found alive, 33 people were rescued in Beichuan, including a 69-year-old villager who had been buried for 119 hours. Troops evacuated 18 scientists trapped in a forest in nearby Mianzhu.

China is on precautionary alert against possible radiation leaks, a government Web site said. The country's chief nuclear weapons research lab is in Mianyang, along with several secret atomic sites, but there are no nuclear power stations.

China has sent 150,000 troops to the disaster area, but roads buckled by the quake and blocked by landslides have made it hard for supplies and rescuers to reach the worst-hit areas.

Offers of help have flooded in and foreign rescue teams from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore have arrived. Donations topped 6 billion yuan.

(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng and Benjamin Kang Lim in Beijing and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong; Writing by Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Peter Millership)

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.  

 May 20 09:32 AM US/Eastern
By ANITA CHANG
Associated Press Writer BEIJING (AP) - More than 30 sources of radiation were buried by debris from the massive earthquake in central China last week and all have either been recovered or safely cordoned off, state media reported Tuesday.

A French nuclear expert said the radioactive sources likely came from materials used in hospitals, factories or in research, not for weapons.

The Chinese government has previously said all nuclear facilities affected by the May 12 earthquake were safe and under control, but did not give any details about which sites were affected or whether any were damaged.

But the quake buried 32 sources of radiation under rubble in Sichuan province, the heart of the disaster zone, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian.

All but two have been recovered, and the remaining two have been located, cordoned and will soon be transported to a safer location, Xinhua said.

Xinhua did not elaborate on any potential threat to the public and did not provide details on the radioactive sources beyond calling them "nuclear facilities and radioactive sources for civilian purposes."

Though Sichuan has no commercial nuclear power plants, the province has extensive military and nuclear weapons research facilities. The headquarters for China's nuclear weapons design facility is in Mianyang and a plutonium processing facility is in Guangyuan, both cities damaged by the quake.

In response to the quake, the military sent soldiers to protect nuclear sites and the country's nuclear safety agency notified staff to be prepared in case of an environmental emergency.

China's main government Web site and a state-run newspaper described "nuclear facilities" and "radioactive sources" as including power plants, reactors, and sites for fuel production and waste disposal, as well as materials used for scientific research and medical treatment.

An official at a French nuclear watchdog who has seen reports from the Chinese nuclear safety agency said materials found in the rubble appeared to come from hospitals, factories or laboratories and were not for used for making nuclear fuel or weapons.

"It doesn't shock me that there would be radioactive items found," particularly hospital equipment, said Thierry Charles, director of plant safety at the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.

An unknown number of hospitals were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake. The Sichuan province health department listed 489 major hospitals in areas that were hardest hit.

Workers removing radioactive material would first find it with detection devices, then extract the material and place it in a sealed container quickly, Charles said. Then it would be repaired or disposed of as nuclear waste.

Information so far suggests "a good reaction by the Chinese teams," Charles said.

However, he said risks remain, primarily from any materials that have not been retrieved or sealed. People who remain in close proximity could receive excessive doses of radiation.

There was also a risk that people could be exposed to radioactivity if some materials were crushed in a building collapse, for example, he said.

Overall, he did not foresee a major risk to groundwater or health because most of the material was probably metal equipment, not fuel or something that disperses more widely.

The French watchdog agency has previously said that China reported "light damage" to unspecified nuclear facilities that were being dismantled before the quake.

___

Associated Press Writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved  

Date: Thursday, 29 May 2008, 4:31 p.m.
 
 QUOTE
 
 May 30, 2008
 
 China Orders Strike Against US For Catastrophic Earthquake
 
 By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
 
 Russian Foreign Ministry reports are stating today the Prime Minister Putin’s ‘sudden’ diplomatic trip to France was made at the behest of China’s President Hu in order to ‘warn’ the European Union not to become involved  with the US following what is widely expected to be a ‘retaliatory strike’  against the United States, and who the Chinese military has blamed for the catastrophic May 12th earthquake that has killed nearly 90,000 human beings.
 
Chinese and Russian Military scientists, these reports say, are concurring with Canadian researcher, and former Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief of Forbes Magazine, Benjamin Fulford, who in a very disturbing video released from his Japanese offices to the American public, details how the United States attacked China by the firing of a 90 Million Volt Shockwave from the Americans High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facilities in Alaska.
 
So powerful was this Shockwave, Britain’s Times Online News Service is reporting that the entire atmosphere over the Chinese earthquake zone became mysteriously changed 30 minutes prior to the 8.0 Magnitude Trembler  “Can clouds predict earthquakes? YouTube has footage of strange multicoloured clouds seen just before the recent earthquake struck Sichuan
 province in China.
 
The first impression is of a rainbow smeared on to small scraps of clouds, a phenomenon best known in a circumzenithal halo. This is created when sunlight shines through cirrus clouds full of tiny hexagonal ice crystals shaped like plates. The crystals behave like glass prisms, splitting the light into a bow with the colours of the spectrum, often brighter than a rainbow.
 
But one puzzle is that the colours in the Chinese clouds were upside down from a normal circumzenithal halo – red pointing towards the horizon and blue towards the Sun, instead of the other way round.”
 
Russian scientists are further speculating that the United States strike against China was ‘exactly timed’ to coincide with the dangerous experiments ongoing at Large Hadron Collider for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and which we had previously reported on in our May 13th report titled “CERN ‘Nailed Heart Of Earth’ With China Quake, Chilean Volcano”.
 
Russian Military Analysts note that though China’s Military has ordered is vast submarine fleet to ‘disperse’ throughout the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese ‘attack’ against the United States would, most likely, take a form of
economic warfare instead of an actual clashing of forces.
 
More disturbing, however, in these reports is China’s urging of both Syria and Turkey not to allow more water into mighty rivers of the Euphrates and Tigris, which the Iraqis are warning are running dry due to the severe
drought in that war-torn Nation.
 
 The importance of this latest move by China is the newly signed Defense Pact signed between Iran and Syria which would allow Chinese Military Forces permission to use Iranian territory to come to the aid of Syria.
 
It should be further noted that the Christian Bibles New Testament Book of Revelations (Chapter 16, Verse 12) prophesied that the Euphrates will dry up in preparation for the Battle of Armageddon and would be crossed by an
Eastern Army of 200 million soldiers, of which in our World today only China is able to field and have the ability to reach by land alone.
 
As the United States and China battle for their very survival in a World becoming increasing volatile due to the rapidly growing shortages of both food and fuel, one does indeed wonder if the End Times are now upon us all.
 
[link to HYPERLINK " http://www.whatdoesitmean.com

Earthquake death toll rises to 69,016

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-01 16:58
 

BEIJING - The death toll in China's major earthquake rose to 69,016 as of noontime Sunday, a report from the Information Office of the State Council said.

A total of 368,545 people were injured and 18,830 others were still missing in the 8.0-magnitude quake that jolted southwestern Sichuan Province on May 12.

A total of 45.55 million people were affected by quake, of whom 15.15 million were relocated, according to the office.

Hospitals had treated 89,818 injured survivors as of Saturday noon, of whom 59,877 were discharged, 12,797 were still being treated and 9,245 were transferred outside of Sichuan for further treatment.

As of Saturday noon, domestic and foreign donations stood at 40.1 billion yuan (about US$ 5.8 billion) and 10.78 billion yuan in cash and goods were forwarded to the disaster area, the office said.

Government disaster relief funds hit 22.57 billion yuan including18.29 billion yuan from the central government and 4.28 billion yuan from local governments, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Relief supplies including 678,900 tents, 4.37 million cotton-padded quilts, 10.7 million garments, 590,000 tonnes of fuel oil and 1.2 million tonnes of coal were sent to the quake-hit areas.

As of Friday, rescuers had found and evacuated 782,004 people, of whom 6,541 were dug out from under debris.

Also, 4,900 temporary shelters were set up in quake areas and 6,700 temporary shelters were being erected and 29,900 were being shipped to the quake regions.

In the 24 hours ending Saturday noon, 215 aftershocks were monitored in southwest China's quake zone, according to the China Seismological Bureau.

No aftershocks above 4.0 on the Richter scale were detected and all the 215 aftershocks were measured below 3.9, the office said, adding that 9,519 aftershocks had been monitored since May 12 when the major quake struck.

---

Nuclear Explosion Occurs Near Epicenter of the Sichuan Earthquake
By Wu Weilin Epoch Times Staff
Jun 03, 2008
 

A woman whose child was killed when the Xinjian primary school collapsed in the May 12 earthquake, is comforted by a relative as she is overcome by grief during a commemoration of Children's Day on the rubble-strewn school campus on June 1, 2008 in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, China. (Andrew Wong/Getty Images)

Boxun News, a Chinese-language Web site based outside China, reported that an unnamed expert has claimed that there was a nuclear explosion near the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake, based on witness reports and the discovery of concrete rubble believed to have come from an underground military installation. The news of this nuclear explosion has raised questions about the cause of the earthquake.

Mr. He, a local resident, stated that when the earthquake occurred on May 12, people saw something erupt from the top of a mountain next to the valley, "It looked like toothpaste being squeezed out," said He. "No, it wasn't [magma]. It was these concrete pieces. The eruption lasted about three minutes." According to a China News Services (CNS) report on May 31, 2008, paramedics from People's Liberation Army (PLA) hospitals and psychologists from Beijing onsite May 23 found concrete debris at the bottom of a valley near the epicenter. The half-mile-wide valley was covered with debris 10 - 20 inches thick, covering the valley floor for almost 1.5 miles.

No major construction was occurring in the area at the time of the earthquake.

The thickness of the concrete pieces seemed to match that used in China's underground military bases, according to Boxun's expert. He explained that while there are documented cases that earthquakes cause volcanic eruptions, there are no accounts of eruptions ejecting concrete.

Based on the CNS report and timing of the eruption at the scene, there seemed to be no evidence of natural volcanic activity. The expert stated he was certain a nuclear explosion shattered the underground concrete structures, hurling debris into the air.

At least one of China's nuclear military bases is located in Mianyang City, Sichuan, near the epicenter.

Chinese Internet surfers commented explosion was not confined to the underground test area and has caused radiation contamination, stating that in a call to Beijing he recommended authorities accept help from other countries, seal the area, find and provide help to those who had been exposed to contamination during the rescue work, and take emergency measures to prevent water contamination.

The expert believes that the nuclear explosion caused the recent 8.0 magnitude Sichuan earthquake in China. However, other experts referenced by Boxun withheld judgment as to whether the explosion caused the earthquake or the earthquake the explosion.

Click here to read the original article in Chinese

Related Articles

- Local Residents Concerned with Safety of Sichuan Nuclear Facilities Tuesday, May 27, 2008

- Chinese Officials May Have Suppressed Warnings Wednesday, May 14, 2008

- Internal Power Struggle Delayed Earthquake Rescue Wednesday, May 21, 2008

- Strong Aftershock Causes More Misery in China Sunday, May 25, 2008  
 

China is focusing resources on swelling lakes formed during this month's devastating earthquake, evacuating tens of thousands of people and mobilizing millions of dollars to prevent massive flooding.

The Tangjiashan lake was created by after a landslide of mud and rocks blocked a river [AFP]

China has begun to drain a lake formed after last month's earthquake in China's Sichuan province in an attempt to reduce the risks of a catastrophic flood.

A sluice channel was opened by Chinese workers on Saturday after heavy rains raised fears that natural dam caused by a landslide would collapse.

Video: Parents anger over collapsed schools

Map: Quake disaster zone

Pictures: Devastation

In Video

Chinese earthquake affects Indian silk industry

The national population and family planning commission has said it plans to send a medical team to the devastated area to help parents that have lost their only child.

 

China's family planning policies restrict most couples to one child, although rules allow for another baby if their child was killed, severely injured or disabled.

The medics will reverse sterilisation operations on couples that want to have another child.

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