At least 8,700 people are dead and thousands more injured after a massive earthquake rocked southwest China on Monday afternoon.

The quake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, was the worst to strike China since the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, which claimed 242,000 lives.

The violent quake jolted Wenchuan County, 159 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, at 2:28 PM on Monday.

A spokesman with China Seismological Bureau (CSB) said the intense quake was felt in at least 16 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tibet.

The shocks, which were even felt in the Thai capital of Bangkok, 1,800 kilometers from the epicenter, leveled buildings, cut transport and electricity supplies, and caused flights to and from the affected areas to be canceled or postponed.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who arrived near the quake center Monday afternoon by plane, said the quake was a "major disaster" and called for calm and courage.

Great loss

Officials in Sichuan said at least 8,533 people were dead in the province as of 10 PM on Monday. In Beichuan, another county hard hit by the quake, the number of people dead is estimated at 5,000, and up to 10,000 people are injured.

In one of the worst tragedies, almost 900 students in the Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan City, about 100 km from Wenchuan, were feared to be buried after a building collapsed. Rescuers recovered at least 50 bodies as devastated parents watched. Eight excavators and five cranes were brought in for rescue work and an ambulance waited.

Xinhua reporters saw a three-storey school building had partially collapsed at the school. Teenagers partially buried were struggling to free themselves from the ruins while others were heard calling for help.

A tearful mother said her son, ninth-grader Zhang Chengwei, was buried in the ruins.

An unknown number of students were also reported buried after buildings collapsed at five other schools in the province's Deyang City, where a quake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale occurred at 4:21 PM on Monday, according to the Sichuan provincial seismological bureau.

In the neighboring provinces, 61 people were killed in Shaanxi, 48 in Gansu, 50 in Chongqing, one in Yunnan and one in Henan, according to the national headquarters for disaster relief.

A rescue team heading to Wenchuan County was trapped in Dujiangyan City as the highways to the county were blocked by huge rock falls, the headquarters said.

The quake also forced several major highways and expressways in southwestern Sichuan and northwestern Shaanxi provinces to close, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Dozens of flights at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport and trains departing from Chengdu were suspended.

Communication between the quake-hit area and outside was seriously disrupted. Telecommunications networks in the cities of Chengdu, Leshan, Mianyang and Deyang in Sichuan were paralyzed.

China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, which is in the worst quake-hit area of southwest China and is home to some 130 pandas, was out of contact as all telecommunications services linking the center with the outside were cut.

Government response

President Hu Jintao called on government departments involved in disaster relief work to organize immediate first aid for the people and to ensure public safety. Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Chengdu late Monday and was in Dujiangyan to direct rescue work.

Wen heads an emergency disaster relief headquarters comprising eight departments responsible for helping with rescue work, medical care, security, information and other tasks.

Officials should make every effort to help the people and to overcome fear and fatigue, Wen said aboard his flight to Taipingsi airport on the outskirts of the Sichuan provincial capital, Chengdu, on Monday evening.

"My fellow Chinese, facing such a severe disaster, we need calm, confidence, courage and efficient organization," he said.

"I believe we can certainly overcome the disaster with the public and the military working together under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the government."

Immediately after the quake, China's earthquake administration launched a "top-level emergency contingency plan" and organized a team of 180 people to be sent to Wenchuan for disaster relief.

The Chengdu Military Area Command has dispatched troops to help with disaster relief work in the stricken area, military sources said.

Tian Yixiang, officer with the emergency office of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), said the troops will assist local government in Wenchuan County to gauge the situation and help with relief work.

The Health Ministry sent 10 emergency medical teams comprised medical and epidemic prevention experts to quake-hit Wenchuan County

The Sichuan health bureau also dispatched 13 medical contingents of 40 people to Wenchuan county. The ministry said it was organizing more back-up teams to help with the rescue efforts.

Jiang Jufeng, governor of Sichuan Province, has ordered two military helicopters to go to Wenchuan to assist the relief work.

The Red Cross Society of China has sent 557 tents and 2,500 quilts valued at 788,000 yuan (US$113,000) to Wenchuan County.

Rescue underway

Huaxi Hospital, the largest hospital in Chengdu, has taken in 106 patients after the quake. The hospital set up an emergency rescue center, and kept all of its medical staff available on duty.

Gao Wei, director of the No.1 Orthopaedics Hospital in Chengdu, said, "We've kept accepting injured people after the quake, and some of the badly wounded have been transferred to other hospitals."

The Chengdu Blood Center posted an urgent notice on its website calling for people to donate blood for the injured. At least 45 people died after the quake in Chengdu.

More than 300 people were seen queuing up to donate blood in the downtown Yulin Avenue in Chengdu.

"I heard it from the radio that a lot of people were hurt, and I'm doing what I can to help," said local resident Peng Liangquan, 45.

In some hospitals in Chengdu, doctors and nurses transferred patients to outdoor tents as a safety precaution. Newborn babies were put on bed sheets spread on the ground on the floor in front of the ward buildings.

Meanwhile, most residents in Chengdu and Dujiangyan had dinner outside or stayed in their cars on Monday night.

"Luckily, all my family are OK and we have planned to stay out overnight, because it is said there may be more aftershocks," said Liang Qi, a resident of Dujiangyan.

The 32-year-old said she was at a bank when the quake happened and she rushed out with the crowd.

"Soon, I received a text message send by local government, which told us that a quake happened and how to protect ourselves," said Liang.

Expert analysis

More than 300 aftershocks were registered after the quake, and a Chinese seismologist warned residents in earthquake-affected areas in southwest China of more tremors, which could be just as devastating.

"A big earthquake could release most, but not all of the underground energy, and the following tremors may also cause big natural disasters," said Zhang Guomin, a research fellow with the China Seismological Bureau.

Aftershocks were generally weaker than the main earthquake, but as many buildings were already damaged, the aftershocks could draw them down, he said.

The Wenchuan quake is the first in the province above seven since 1976. Maowen, a neighboring county, was hit by an quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale in 1933, which claimed more than 9,000 lives. Songpan and Pingwu in the northwest of Sichuan Province were hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 in 1976.

"Wenchuan is prone to earthquakes as it is on a major fault line -- the south-north fault line that runs from Yunnan to Ningxia," said Zhang.

The county was also on a small fault line known as Longmen mountain earthquake belt.

The Wenchuan quake also triggered a minor quake measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale jolted the Tongzhou District in eastern Beijing at 2:35 PM which shook high-rise buildings and sent panicked people into streets.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said on its website that the tremor in Beijing was actually triggered by the quake wave from Sichuan Province and not a separate earthquake.

Experts also refuted the rumor that Beijing would see aftershocks measuring two to six on the Richter scale thereafter.

"It is not possible for Beijing to be affected by the aftershocks in Sichuan," said Ding Lin, a researcher with the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"The aftershocks are usually weaker than the main tremor and there is such a long distance between Beijing and Sichuan," said Ding.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)