Earthquake Death Toll in China Exceeds 10,000

“It illuminated rows and rows of apartment blocks collapsed into piles, bodies wedged among the debris, homeless families and their neighbors clustered on the roadside, shielding themselves from the downpour with plastic tarps. The façade of a building had sheared off, leaving one side of the apartments open to the air,” the New York Times reported.

This is the scene of Dujiangyan, a city in southern Sichuan Province of China, on Tuesday. After a 7.9 earthquake the day before, authorities in major cities in Sichuan are still struggling to find the bodies of the victims. People are in extreme fear due to possible aftershocks and the shortage of electricity and water.

The newspaper also reported that dozens of people were clawing at the debris and calling their children’s names around a middle school in the city where some 900 students were buried.

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported, “With the collapse of a six-story hospital building, 200-300 doctors and patients were buried alive. Near the collapsed building, there was a body covered with a blue sheet.”

Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, which is also known for the remains of the Three Kingdoms, citizens stayed up all night on the streets, worrying about possible aftershocks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Japan’s Sankei Shimbun said that with the collapse of power grids and electricity polls, the streets in downtown Shenyang were packed with people who are crying after losing contact with their family members due to the disrupted cell phone services.

As the rescue efforts preceded, the number of victims began to soar.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said that the death toll of eight provinces including Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi and Chongqing reached some 11,900 and around 500,000 buildings collapsed, quoting the national statistics.

In Mienchow, some 20,000 people are buried under the rubbles of factories and buildings, and in Sichuan, around 1,000 people are buried after the collapse of classrooms of Beichuan Middle School in Beichuan.

Heo Bao, vice secretary in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture said some 60,000 residents in a rural area in Wenchuan county, the epicenter, are not located yet. In Aba Province, a bus was buried, killing 37 foreign tourists on Tuesday.

China sent over 50,000 People’s Liberation Army soldiers to affected areas for rescue and restoration efforts.

According to the Korean Consulate in Chengdu, there were some Korean tourists in Sichuan at the time of earthquake, but no injuries have been reported.

The aid from the international community is under way. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent a message of condolence to the earthquake victims, saying the world body would not spare rescue and restoration efforts for the affected areas.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Japanese Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a message of solace to China.

Meanwhile, the United States Geological Survey corrected the magnitude of the earthquake from 7.8 to 7.9 on the Richter scale on Tuesday.