Home
Massive earthquake in China sends people rushing out
United States News.Net
Monday 12th May, 2008 (IANS)
Beijing, May 12 (Xinhua) A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale jolted Wenchuan County in China's southwestern Sichuan Province Monday afternoon, the State Seismological Bureau said. A smaller quake jolted Beijing within minutes.
The major earthquake took place at 2.28 p.m. Its epicentre was located 31.0 degrees north latitude and 103.4 degrees east longitude, the bureau said.
With a population of 111,800, Wenchuan lies in southeast part of the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, 146 km to the northwest of Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan.
Wenchuan is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading research and breeding base of the endangered giant pandas.
Another earthquake measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale jolted Tongzhou District in east Beijing at 2.35 p.m. Monday. The quake's epicentre was located 39.8 north latitude and 116.8 east longitude, according to the State Seismological Bureau.
Tremors were also reported from many other parts of China. Reporters in Chengdu said residential buildings in downtown areas were damaged.
The telecom networks in Chengdu and Chongqing cities were snapped after the quake. People complained they were unable to make telephone calls on the fixed line or in the mobile.
The quake was also felt in Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan Province, where people rushed out of homes and offices and took to the streets.
Many said they felt dizzy and saw the pendant lamps on their ceilings swinging back and forth.
In Lanzhou, capital of the northwest China's Gansu Province, the quake sent many parked cars by the roadside buzzing.
Xinhua reporters in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, said they felt the office building rocking back and forth for about four minutes.
A retiree in Leshan City of Sichuan Province said over the telephone that a wall in her garden collapsed, while a repairman in Chongqing saw the ceiling of his factory collapsed. In Shanghai, people were evacuated from office buildings in Hongqiao and Nanjing Road.
 Email this story to a friend
Have your say on this story
|
 |
 |
- Obama does not want to dazzle TV audiences, wants to discuss real issues
Denver, Aug.28 : Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has insisted that he does not want to dazzle a TV audience estimated to be in the tens of millions with "a bunch of a high-flying rhetoric", but instead, intends to focus on the kitchen-table economic issues facing American voters. [read story]
- War between US State Dept, White House comes to the fore with Boucher's mail leak
Washington, Aug 28 : After the leakage of the email from US State Department Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Affairs Richard Boucher to US ambassador in London Zalmay Khalilzad questioning him over his telephonic talks with Pakistan presidential hopeful Asif Ali Zardari, the long-running turf war between the State Department's South Asia bureaucracy and those with links to the White House and the US Vice-President's Office has come out in the open. [read story]
- White House terms Russia's decision on Ossetia 'shortsighted'
Washington, Aug.28 : The United States, Europe and several of their allies have termed Russia's decision to recommend independence to two Georgian rebel provinces of South and North Ossetia as "shortsighted." [read story]
- Indian American Indra Nooyi, world's third most powerful woman
New York, Aug.28 : Indian American Indra Nooyi, the Chairman and CEO of Pepsico U.S., has been ranked as the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine. [read story]
- US soldiers increasingly exposed to migraine
Washington, Aug 28 (IANS) US military personnel are becoming increasingly vulnerable to migraine, but their condition is often underdiagnosed, according to two studies. [read story]
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
