CHINA poured rescue crews and equipment into Qinghai yesterday in a frantic search for survivors in the mountainous Tibetan region, more than a day after strong earthquakes killed more than 600 people and injured thousands.
The series of quakes, with the strongest measuring 7.1 magnitude, flattened buildings made in the traditional Tibetan style of mud and wood, as well as modern concrete structures, across the remote western Yushu county.
The tremors destroyed 85 per cent of houses in some towns, including Jiegu, the biggest conurbation in the area. The town is known by Tibetans as Gyegu and it lies about 30km from the epicentre of the quake.
The focus was on trying to rescue children from several collapsed schools, and the official Xinhua news agency said that at least 66 students and 10 teachers had died in the quake. The head of the Red Cross in Yushu said 70 per cent of the schools collapsed.
Three schools accounted for most of the dead, with 32 students at one primary school and 22 at the Yushu Vocational School, 20 of them girls, Xinhua reported.
The rescue work at the schools is making major headlines after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, which left almost 90,000 people dead or missing. Thousands of those students were killed when their schools collapsed, many because of shoddy construction and corruption.
State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of anxious parents watching the rescue effort.
The race was on to ferry medical supplies and doctors to the sparsely populated and poor region, where most of the residents are Tibetans.
There are fears that the altitude of around 4,000m could impede rescue efforts as some of the search dogs might have problems with the thin air. The altitude also makes for a very cold environment.
Survivors were forced to spend the night outdoors, many gathering on a field used for horse races, as temperatures fell below freezing and aftershocks continued – at least five major aftershocks were experienced overnight. The most serious aftershock measured 6.3 magnitude.
“This feels like a war zone. It’s a complete mess. At night, people were crying and shouting. Women were crying for their families,” Ren Yu, general manager of Yushu Hotel in Jiegu, told the Xinhua news agency.
“Some of the people have broken legs or arms but all they can get now is an injection. They were crying in pain.”
Premier Wen Jiabao, who earned the nickname “Grandpa Wen” for the way he personally intervened in the Sichuan earthquake, flew into Yushu last night to inspect the rescue effort.
By early yesterday rescuers had taken 1,000 people from the rubble, said state media. A group of workers found a girl trapped for more than 12 hours under a heap of debris.
Just as in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake, Chinese people are rallying around to support the victims and help with the rescue effort.
One worker for the popular Tianya website, Wang Na, set up a donation campaign online.
“The quake-hit area urgently needs bottled water, instant noodles, cotton-padded quilts, clothes, tents, flashlights, anti-inflammatory drugs and other medicines,” ran the web appeal.
For its part, the government has initially allocated 200 million yuan (€22 million) for relief, and mobilised more than 5,000 rescue workers.
