Worst earthquake in three decades devastates southwest China, killing
nearly 9,000 people in Sichuan province and razing 80 percent of the buildings
in one county, initial estimates suggest.

YA'AN, SICHUAN PROVINCE, CHINA (MAY 12, 2008) SICHUAN TV -

  China's most devastating earthquake in three decades killed
nearly 9,000 people in western Sichuan province on Monday (May 12) and razed
80 percent of the buildings in one county, initial estimates said.
    The 7.8 magnitude quake struck in the middle of the school day,
toppling eight schools in the region. Chemical plants and at least one
hospital were flattened, trapping many hundreds, state media said.
    In Ya'an city, 120 km from the epicentre, 11 people died and many were
injured after the earthquake hit.    
    Local authorities organised special outside medical areas to deal with
the wounded.     
    Rescuers were still cut off from the epicentre in Wenchuan, a county of
112,000 people about 100 km (62 miles) from the Sichuan provincial capital
Chengdu, Xinhua said. The death toll was expected to rise significantly.
    More than 7,000 of the dead were in Sichuan's Beichuan Qiang Autonomous
County, where 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed, state media and
Xinhua said.
    The quake is also the worst to hit China in 32 years since the 1976
Tangshan earthquake in northeastern China where up to 300,000 died.
    It has come at a bad time for China, which holds the Olympic Games in
August, and has been struggling to keep a lid on unrest in ethnic Tibetan
areas and the heavily Muslim northeastern Xinjiang region.
    The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov) the main quake struck at 0628 GMT at a depth of
10 km (6 miles).