Edited by DjS with AFP
the April 20, 2013 at 08 h 51, updated the April 20, 2013 at 11:20.
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.a ... 30839.htmlAsia
A 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck Saturday morning southwest of China. According to a provisional toll, there are at least 100 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. Thousands of soldiers were sent as reinforcements to relief operations.
The disaster occurred at the foot of the Tibetan plateau, in the province of Sichuan, a region of high seismic activity already heavily bereaved in 2008 by a powerful earthquake .
"The earthquake at Ya' year, in the district of Lushan, made hundreds of dead or wounded", said the Sichuan seismology Agency, on a Government website. According to a new review of the Agency's national seismology, earthquake has made at least 100 dead and more than 2,000 wounded.
Supported students trapped
The earthquake surprised the population just after 8 p.m. local, and many residents rushed out still in pajamas. The first photos of the disaster showed the low-rise buildings that have collapsed, with many rubble cluttering the streets. Some took shots of the sky showed rural areas where houses appeared to have been razed to foundations and other, more dense Habitat, where the damage seemed more limited.
More than 2,000 troops were dispatched in emergency, reinforcing the rescuers already on hand to rescue, reported the new China Agency. The emergency access was hampered by landslides caused by the earthquake, reported State CCTV television.
Students are considered trapped under a University building which collapsed at Ya' year, reported the information Sina.com portal. Local hosting a nursery in the district of Lushan also collapsed, making an unknown number of victims, according to a local resident who has published a picture on the internet.
An area already affected
The new Chinese president, Xi Jinping, requested efforts all-out to assist victims and Prime Minister Li Keqiang indicated he was going in the affected region. His predecessor, Wen Jiabao, had earned some popularity in China by going to places of previous disasters.
China is a customary of earthquake country, even though the population is significantly less sensitized to the seismic risk to the Japan.
Sichuan, one of China's most populated province, had been hit in May 2008 by the devastating earthquake that had done some 87,000 dead and missing.