Relief efforts are in full swing in Southwest China's Yunnan Province where 22 people were killed
and more than 100 injured after an earthquake on
Saturday.
According to reports, some 6,000 homes collapsed in the quake,
which measured 5.1 on the Richter scale. The tremors hit Yanjin
County in Zhaotong City at about 9:10 am.
Life in the county was slowly returning to normal yesterday
afternoon, with power supply and train services mostly
restored.
"Most of the victims were killed under collapsing homes and
falling rocks," Li Jiangren, deputy director of the publicity
department of the Yanjin county government, told China Daily
on the phone. "Of the injured, eight are in serious condition in
county hospitals."
At least five aftershocks measuring 2 on the Richter scale
rattled the area yesterday, Beijing News said.
Apart from the 6,000 buildings destroyed in the affected area,
more than 9,000 buildings are in danger of collapse and 38,000 were
damaged by the quake, which shook 13 townships in the region. The
epicenter was about 90 kilometers from Yunnan's Zhaotong city,
Xinhua news agency said.
Houses in Yanjin, situated in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau with a
population of 350,000, were mostly built on land vulnerable to
earthquakes, Xinhua said, citing seismological experts.
Chen Li, who was working on an expressway construction site when
the quake hit, told China Daily on the phone: "We heard a
big sound like thunder or fireworks. Then rocks fell from the hills
and houses were shaking. It all happened in four or five seconds.
Then someone shouted 'earthquake.' People ran out of buildings and
went to the streets."
But by yesterday, power supply in the disaster areas was mostly
restored, making rescue efforts easier, said Tian Rongping,
administrative director of the Zhaotong municipal government.
The Neijiang-Kunming railway, a major railway line linking
Yunnan to Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality, resumed service
yesterday morning, Liu Zhenfang, deputy director of the Kunming
Railway Bureau, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Relief materials have reached the affected areas, and tents,
quilts and blankets have been sent to the quake-hit areas along
with food and water, a local official said.
More than 50,000 affected residents had been moved to safety by
yesterday afternoon, said Wu Yongfei, vice-mayor of Zhaotong.
(China Daily July 24, 2006)