At least 157 people have been killed in two cities near the epicenter of a strong earthquake that struck southwest China Monday, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Some 150 people were left dead and 738 others injured in the Longnan City, northwest China's Gansu Province, said a spokesman with the city government.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 2:28 PM on Monday. More than 1,000 aftershocks have been recorded.

The quake was strongly felt in Longnan, about 240 km northeast of Wenchuan.

Xinhua reporters saw hundreds of people, including citizens and farmers, spent Monday night in the open air, daring not go home.

Patients from the Longnan Municipal No. 1 People's Hospital were evacuated and being treated in makeshift tents on the streets because large cracks had appeared in the building of the hospital.

"Stampede accidents have been reported in some schools in Longnan," said Zhang Lixin, a press official of Longnan City of Gansu. He did not provide details about the casualties.

In the neighboring Tianshui City, seven people have been killed and 29 others injured, vice mayor Guo Qiruo said.

"The exact number of casualties is still being counted," he said.

Currently, the latest number of casualties in Gansu is not available.

In Sichuan, nearly 10,000 people were feared dead.

The powerful tremor was also strongly felt in many other parts of the country, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tibet.

In regions neighboring Sichuan, 85 were killed in Shaanxi Province, 50 in Chongqing municipality, one in Yunnan Province and one in Henan Province.

The quake was the worst to strike China since the Tangshan earthquake in north China's Hebei Province in 1976, which claimed 242,000 lives.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)