China Earthquakes Reportedly Kill Dozens

World News | admin | September 8, 2012 at 6:35 pm

China Earthquakes Reportedly Kill Dozens: A number of earthquakes hit China, killing around 64 people and injuring over 715 civilians. Southwestern China was shaken by a large number of quakes, the largest of which measured at magnitude 5.7 on the Richter scale.

According to reports of the local authorities the greatest damage has been suffered by the rural Yiliang County. This area is a mountainous terrain at the North Eastern end of the Yunnan province. Yiliang shares a border with the Guizhou province.

An elementary school collapsed and turned to rubble due to one of the earthquakes in China; it is still unknown whether any students were hurt or not. In 2008, China suffered one of the biggest natural catastrophes when a massive earthquake had hit – the quake had killed thousands of children as schools collapsed. The 2008 China earthquake had killed almost 80,000 people.

The affected areas are mostly the densely populated, poor rural areas. These areas are population by non Chinese civilians, chiefly Yi and Hui people.

According to reports of the civil affairs department, the earthquakes have destroyed over 6650 homes and over 100,000 are left homeless. In addition, a total of 430,000 houses have been damaged and another 100,000 people have been evacuated for safety purposes.

The first shock that measured at magnitude 5.7 had struck at 11:19 am on Friday. This strong earthquake was followed by sixteen major ones.

Authorities at the relief centers are desperately working to overcome the damage caused by the earthquake. Landslides, rock falls and damaged roads have made the task of revival even more difficult. Ambulances and rescue forces are trying their best to reach the affected areas, primarily the rural ones.

The Chinese government and authorities are currently under immense pressure to prove they are the best in this time of natural disaster. Recently, many major earthquakes have hit several parts of the world – the most prominent ones include California and Costa Rica.