Quake in remote west China kills 589, buries more

By ANITA CHANG (AP) – 1 hour ago

XINING, China — Rescuers combed through the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors Thursday, more than a day after strong earthquakes shook a mountainous Tibetan region of China, killing nearly 600 people and injuring thousands.

The series of quakes flattened buildings across remote western Yushu county and sent survivors, many bleeding from their wounds, flooding into the streets of Jiegu township. State television showed block after devastated block of toppled mud and wood homes. Local officials said 85 percent of the buildings had been destroyed.

Residents and troops garrisoned in the town used shovels and their hands to pull survivors and bodies from the rubble much of the day Wednesday. Several schools collapsed, with the state news agency saying at least 56 students died. Worst hit was the Yushu Vocational School, where the officials Xinhua News Agency cited a local education official as saying 22 students, 20 of them girls, died.

State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of rescuers working at night, picking through the rubble aided by torchlights fixed to their safety helmets. A group of workers found a girl trapped for more than 12 hours under a heap of debris.

“I can’t feel my arm,” said the girl, who was curled up with her back to the workers. The workers talked to her and fed her water as others searched for pieces of wood to prop up the rubble that had entrapped her. As rescuers gingerly pulled her out and carried her to a stretcher, she could be heard saying: “I’m sorry for the trouble. Thank you, I will never forget this.”

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*please note that Plateau Perspectives and Yushu Earthquakre Relief are not affilliated with the AP