Rescuers search for victims in the debris of a hospital after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Dujiangyan, in southwest China's Sichuan province, on Monday.(Color China Photo/Associated Press)

 

 

 

his perents died in the earthquake

 

 

 

More than 10,000 people died when a 7.9 -magnitude earthquake struck southwestern China on Monday, trapping adults and children under the rubble of collapsed schools and office buildings, and causing ammonia spills at a chemical plant, the state news agency said.

Xinhua, citing government officials, said almost all of the deaths were in Sichuan province, where another 10,000 could be injured. In one of the worst-hit areas of Sichuan — Beichuan county — an estimated 80 per cent of buildings were reduced to rubble.

The earthquake, felt as far away as Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam, struck about 100 kilometres northwest of the capital of Sichuan, Chengdu, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website. It hit at 2:28 p.m. local time, when schools were full and office buildings were packed.

More than 200 people died in three other provinces, including Gansu and Yunnan, and in the municipality of Chongqing. No Canadian casualties or injuries have been reported, a Foreign Affairs spokesman said Monday, adding that the Canadian Embassy in Beijing is monitoring the situation and providing assistance to Canadians in the area.

Rescuers try to save injured students Monday at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Township, about 100 kilometres from the epicentre of the earthquake.(Chen Xie/Xinhua/Associated Press)

Xinhua said about 900 students were trapped inside a high school in Juyuan township, and students could be seen trying to climb out from under the rubble of the three-storey building, while others were heard calling for help.

At least 50 people were confirmed dead at the site of the collapse, according to the news agency. Families waited in the rain near the rubble as rescuers wrote the names of the dead on a blackboard, Xinhua said.

Several other schools reportedly collapsed as well, the news agency said, including five in the Sichuan city of Deyang.

At least one person was killed when a water tower toppled near the epicentre of the earthquake, Xinhua said, while hundreds of people were buried by rubble when a chemical plant collapsed in the Shifang area of Sichuan. It's feared that 70 tonnes of liquid ammonia leaked from the plant.

 

Xinhua said as many at least 600 died in Shifang city, while 2,300 people in the city were still buried under rubble. The report did not say whether people died from the quake or the chemical leak.

A hospital collapsed in Dujiangyan city, in Sichuan, Xinhua said.

Bless the people who suffered the earquake ,and hope our country peachful in further.

 

Bless the injured people will become health soon,and give all our `s best wishes to our country,and the people, hope the 2008 Olympic Games willbe successful, everything wll with our country and the peoplr in the following years.

Quoting from [cuff button]:

Bless the injured people will become health soon,and give all our `s best wishes to our country,and the people, hope the 2008 Olympic Games willbe successful, everything wll with our country and the peoplr in the following years.

 First hearing the news of sichang earthquake, I and my colleague were really shaked. we really didn't think that would have happied. In this year's winter, the snow covered everywhere of southeastern China. It was so serious , and now the earthquake attacked the middle of China. However, what ever happied &  happening & will happen, we Chinese people will hold on forever, right~

 The earthquake is so terrible  . All my relatives heard the earthquake, we are saddly . And we hope the people can go well  .

It's really terrible what happened.  My sister is a doctor and she is working with some friends to provide medical assistance over there.  I can only send my hope and best wishes to the families of those displaced or hurt during this most terrible event.