Troops called in to deal with China quake aftermath

Thousands of troops were called in to central China after a massive earthquake rocked the region today bringing fears of a huge death toll.

Early reports said it killed at least 100 people and buried nearly 900 children in their school buildings. The numbers of deaths are expected to rise sharply. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the middle of the afternoon, when classes and office towers were full, 57 miles north-west of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.

The official state Xinhua News Agency said the dead had been killed in Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces and in the Chongqing district. It said many had died in collapsed buildings but did not give details. More than 5,000 soldiers and police have been rushed into Sichuan to help in the disaster relief. The airport in Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu, was closed and roads were clogged with traffic after the earthquake.

The quake struck at 2.28 pm (07.28 Irish time), the US Geological Survey said, followed by a series of smaller aftershocks. An Israeli student in Juyuan, Ronen Medzini said power and water supplies had been cut. “Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting,” he said.