Sichuan Earthquake - Photos and video of earthquake in Sichuan Province in China that killed more than 9,000 people with thousands more trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked Chengdu, China on May 12, 2008.
The Sichuan earthquake struck in mid-afternoon and leveled six schools including Juyuan Middle School - seen in pictures below - where 900 students were crushed when the three-story school collapsed in Dujiangyan City, about 100 kilometers from the epicenter in Wenchuan county of southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, was badly shaken during the four-minute quake, but the worst damage was in Dujiangyan City, northwest of Chengdu toward the Tibet plateau as seen in the China earthquake map below.
The earthquake death toll is likely to soar as rescuers worked around the clock digging in collapsed buildings for survivors. In photos below, workers dug frantically all night seeking survivors in school collapse.
As workers used cranes and backhoes to remove rubble, rescue workers searched the wreckage of a collapsed school for survivors.
Sadly, not many of the 900 students buried alive at this school survived.
Five other schools also collapsed in the quake and there were reports of heavy damage to at least two hospitals in Sichuan Province.
The Sichuan earthquake epicenter was in the rural county of Wenchuan. Wenchuan is at the tip of Tibetan-occupied areas of the country, and generally sparsely populated. Its total official population is 110,000.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted the Sichuan provincial government as saying 7,651 people died across the province in the devastating earthquake, but the situation in at least two counties remain unclear.
In Beichuan county, just east of the epicenter, up to 5,000 people were killed and 80 per cent of buildings collapsed, Xinhua said. Another 10,000 people were injured.
In Beijing, which is almost 1,400 miles away, buildings swayed for two minutes, and the powerful earthquake’s effects were felt all over the country.
Many residents of Chengdu, Sichuan were too frightened to sleep indoors after the massive quake and it’s aftershocks roiled the city of ten million.
And that’s the latest news and pictures of China’s Sichuan earthquake.
Tags: chengdu earthquake, china, china earthquake, china news, sichuan earthquake
May 12th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of people were buried in two collapsed chemical plants in Shifang in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, the online edition of the official Xinhua news agency said.
About 6,000 people were evacuated, Xinhua said, adding that more than 80 tons of liquid ammonia were leaked.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Rescuers were still cut off from the epicenter 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.
“We are doing everything we can, but the roads are blanketed with rocks and boulders,” Xinhua quoted Sichuan deputy party chief Li Chongxi as saying.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Photos from Chongqing, China Earthquake
Collapsed school in Dujiangyan, Sichuan, China.
Middle school student pulled from wreckage of collapsed school.
Rescuers help man whose leg is pinned by huge concrete pillar.
Rescuers struggle to free injured man buried in rubble.
Nightime scene of rescue work at collapsed school building, one of eight schools where thousands of students persihed in the 2:28 p.m. earthquake. Another 30 minutes and schools would have ben empty.
Injured students rest in makeshift shelter as the local hospital also collapsed in the powerful earthquake.
Apartment building collapsed in Sichuan province and clogged this city street with rubble.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
DUJIANGYAN, Sichuan, May 12 (Xinhua) — A major earthquake in southwest China’s Sichuan Province has killed 7,651 people by 10 p.m. Monday in Sichuan alone, said the ad hoc headquarters for disaster relief headed by Premier Wen Jiabao in Sichuan.
The casualty calculation is still going on, the headquarters said.
By press time, disaster relief teams are obstructed in the city of Dujiangyan, less than 100 kilometers away from Wenchuan, as the only roads linking Wenchuan, the epicenter, and provincial capital Chengdu were damaged during the earthquake, according to Li Qianghua, director with the China Earthquake Networks Center.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
About 900 teenagers were buried in the rubble of a collapsed three-story school building in the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan.
Local villagers had helped dozens of students out of the ruins and cranes were excavating the site as parents looked on, the Xinhua news agency said.
“Some buried teenagers were struggling to break loose from underneath the ruins while others were crying out for help,” the agency said.
Hundreds of people were trapped under collapsed schools, factories and dormitories in Shifang in Sichuan, Xinhua said, including several hundred trapped under two collapsed chemical plants.
Some 80 tons of highly corrosive liquid ammonia had leaked in Shifang forcing the evacuation of 6,000 people, it said.
Hundreds of people were buried under rubble in a collapsed hospital in Dujiangyan.
Troops have begun pouring into the region with sniffer dogs, life detection equipment, and some firefighters carrying explosives to blow up rocks piled on the roads, state television said.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Latest Update On Sichuan Earthquake
CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - Nearly 10,000 people were killed by the earthquake that hammered southwest China, officials said on Tuesday as rescuers struggled to reach the worst-hit areas, where many more may have died.
Rescuers worked frantically through the night, pulling bodies from schools, homes, factories and hospitals that were demolished by the 7.8 magnitude quake, which rippled from a mountainous area of Sichuan province across much of China on Monday afternoon.
The toll from China’s worst earthquake for over three decades appeared sure to climb as troops struggled on foot to reach the worst-hit area, Wenchuan, a hilly county of 112,000 people 100 km (62 miles) from Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu.
About 900 teenagers were buried under a collapsed three-storey school building in the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan.
Premier Wen Jiabao, who rushed there, bowed three times in grief before some of the 50 bodies already pulled out, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Not one minute can be wasted,” Wen said, state television showed. “One minute, one second could mean a child’s life.”
At a second school in Dujiangyan, fewer than 100 of 420 students survived, Xinhua reported.
The government has rushed troops and medical teams to dig for survivors and treat the injured. But severed roads and rail lines blocked the way to Wenchuan, and local officials described crumpled houses, landslides and scenes of desperation.
“We are in urgent need of tents, food, medicine and satellite communications equipment,” the Communist Party chief of Wenchuan, Wang Bin said, according to Xinhua.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
CHENGDU, China - Chinese state media is reporting that another 1,000 students and teachers are dead or missing after a massive earthquake crushed a high school.
The official Xinhua News Agency said May 13 that the school collapsed in Beichuan county, just east of the epicenter of Monday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake.
The toll is in addition to another collapsed school were 900 students are feared dead.
Xinhua said the school in Beichuan, a six- or seven-story building, had been reduced to a pile of rubble about two yards high.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:24 am
What’s the use of establishing the provincial observatory ? Are there no responsible govenrmantal facilities that could foresee any potential dangers ? It is ridiculous that commen people didn’t know anything about the massive quake beforehand !!! Sometimes natural disasters are out of our control but precautions and prevention activities should have been taken. Let’s take Japan for example.There are thouands of earthquakes of diffrent magnitudes all year around.However, Japanese people received training since their childhood for survival during the quakes.We ,poor people living in the poorly equipped rural area could hardly enough food to eat, not mentioned to practice surviving from the possible earthquakes !
tears !!!
May God bless them ! Mourn for them !
May 13th, 2008 at 3:40 am
omg this is well bad
May 13th, 2008 at 6:34 am
If the politics were had time to listen to scientists.
An article published on the Journal of catastrophes in China has predicted an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 in sichuan-yunan area in 2008. Some others geologists made the same observations but they were censured because of the coming olympics.
Those people dead could have been saved if ….. 
May 13th, 2008 at 10:21 am
May God Bless at the lost souls with lots of peace ..
and may enough help reach the needed victims..
iL pray for more peace on earth.. God bless all…
May 14th, 2008 at 8:22 am
More Sichuan Earthquake News
http://a11news.com/112/dujiangyan-china-earthquake/
http://a11news.com/113/dujiangyan-china-earthquake-video/
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I feel very sorry for these people
god bless them all :]]
May 24th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Removed two Reuters news videos from this post because they were extremely slow to load and are now pretty outdated.
Newer coverage of the Sichuan earthquake and news videos are in these two related posts:
http://a11news.com/112/dujiangyan-china-earthquake/
http://a11news.com/113/dujiangyan-china-earthquake-video/
May 26th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
This Is SOOOOO Sad Like Really . Hope They Get Better !
Eden
May 28th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
LOL HA HA HA ROFL LMAO
May 29th, 2008 at 5:56 am
[...] http://a11news.com/109/sichuan-earthquake/ [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:22 pm
OMG!!!! I CAN’T BELIVE THAT THAT WOULD HAPPEN!!! ITS SOOO DEVESTATING!!
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I CAN’T BELIVE THAT HAPPENED
June 24th, 2008 at 4:39 am
waaaa waaaa my friend cousin in si cun bye bye
December 6th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
AFP/Graphic – Map of Indonesia locating the epicentre of a 7.5-magnitude quake Monday, which killed four people, toppling … Play Video Video: AP Top Stories AP Play Video Video: Quake strikes off Indonesia coast Australia 7 News