Major earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province has killed 7,651 people by 10 PM on Monday in Sichuan alone, said the ad hoc headquarters for disaster relief headed by Premier Wen Jiabao in Sichuan.

The casualty calculation is still going on, the headquarters said.

By press time, disaster relief teams are obstructed in the city of Dujiangyan, less than 100 kilometers away from Wenchuan, as the only roads linking Wenchuan, the epicenter, and provincial capital Chengdu were damaged during the earthquake, according to Li Qianghua, director with the China Earthquake Networks Center.

Zhang Hongwei, spokesman of the China Seismologicial Bureau, told Xinhua at 9:30 p.m. Monday that the Wenchuan earthquake has affected more than half of the country's provinces and municipalities nationwide.

Tremors were reported in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing municipalities, Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Yunnan, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Henan and Jiangsu provinces, and Tibet Autonomous Region, Zhang said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)