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More Than 8,000 Dead as Massive Earthquake Rocks China
Written By Tracy E. Gilchrist
Category: | Daily News |
A massive earthquake that shook China today has claimed 8,500 lives and the number of dead continues to rise.
The earthquake that measured 7.8 on the Richter scale rocked the country’s Sichuan Province, claiming up to 7,500 lives, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
But in Beichuan County, which lies just east of the epicenter, the number of lives lost is climbing and expected to reach up to 5,000.
The quake destroyed up to 80 percent of the buildings there and injured another 10,000 people. Rescuers in Sichuan continue to work tirelessly to save 900 students buried in rubble at their three-story high school in the city of Dujiangyan.
"Facing disaster, the most important thing is calm, confidence, courage and strong leadership," said the country’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabo, who had just boarded a flight to inspect the hardest hit regions. "We will definitely overcome this major disaster."
The quake, which hit at 2:28 p.m., caused buildings to sway thousands of miles away in Beijing and in the neighboring countries of Taiwan and Bangkok.
"People in our building all panicked. We went out for shelter. I felt a strong earthquake, similar to the one in Kobe [Japan]," said Shen Jie, a banker working in a Japanese bank on the 20th floor of a Shanghai skyscraper.
The quake hit northwest of the Sichuan's capital city of Chengdu, but deaths have been reported as far away as the northwestern province of Gansu, where at least 10 people were killed.
Due to the earthquake’s powerful impact and the wide swath of the area affected, officials have predicted the death toll will continue to rise.
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