Quake Kills As Many As 7,600, Buries 900
Thousands More Hurt

POSTED: 3:21 am PDT May 12, 2008
UPDATED: 8:11 am PDT May 12, 2008

BEIJING -- Chinese state media said more than 7,600 people have died in Sichuan province alone from a massive earthquake.

The official Xinhua News Agency said that another 10,000 people were believed hurt in one of the province's counties after the 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday.

Nearly 900 students were trapped after their school collapsed about 60 miles from the quake's epicenter. Rescuers had recovered at least 50 bodies from the debris of the school building.

The news agency said the quake collapsed 80 percent of the buildings in Sichuan province, including a school where the students are trapped.

The news agency said its reporters saw teenagers struggling to break loose from the rubble of the three-story building.

Two girls were quoted as saying they escaped because they had "run faster than the others."

The quake was centered about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu, but it sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets of Beijing and Shanghai, hundreds of miles away.

It struck at 2:28 p.m., when schools and office towers were full.

The rumbling was also felt in Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan.

There have been several aftershocks.

One person in a town near the quake's epicenter said there are traffic jams and no running water. Power is out and phone lines are jammed.

State television broadcasted tips for anyone who is trapped, telling them: "Keep calm and conserve your energy. Seek water and food, and wait patiently for rescue."

Local officials near the epicenter of the quake said buildings cracked and collapsed and mountain roads were damaged.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was heading to the area.

In the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown.

A witness reached by phone in Chengdu said people flooded from buildings, but there were no reports of damage or injuries there.

The quake also was felt in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast.
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