3,000 Dead, 900 Kids Buried in China Quake

Prez calls for 'all out' effort in stricken area
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted May 12, 2008 5:54 AM CDT
3,000 Dead, 900 Kids Buried in China Quake
Frightened residents gather on a street in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou province, after an earthquake jolted the region today.    (AP Photo/Xinhua, Yang Ying)

Some 900 students were buried when a school collapsed in today's earthquake in China, state media reported, and the death climbed past 3,000 in just one county. Two other school collapses killed at least 5 children in a province adjacent to Sichuan province, where the quake occurred. Little else is yet known because phone communication is out in the epicenter about 60 miles from Chengdu, home of some 10 million people.

President Hu Jintao called for "all-out" efforts to rescue victims. Premier Wen Jiabao was traveling to the stricken area and troops were being sent to help with disaster relief. The mammoth quake was felt in Beijing, where frightened workers poured from office buildings, and as far away as Hanoi and Bangkok. (More China stories.)

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