Hundreds feared dead or injured in Sichuan earthquake
A 7 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province may have killed or injured hundreds of people, according to an early estimate from the province's seismological bureau.
Four hours after the quake struck, 72 people had been confirmed dead and 600 injured, according to state media.
The earthquake struck just after 8am in Ya'an, a city of roughly 1.5 million people in the foothills of the Tibetan plateau.
It was followed by at least nine smaller aftershocks over the space of an hour. The earthquake occurred at a shallow depth of less than eight miles, which may have magnified the impact.
In 2008, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Wenchuan, in the same province of Sichuan, killed roughly 68,000 people. It occurred at a depth of 12 miles.
Chinese reporters in Sichuan noted that the quake had struck when many residents in Ya'an had already risen and left their homes for the day. The quake shook buildings for at least ten seconds, according to witnesses.
Large crowds of people had gathered in the streets in Ya'an with their belongings and residents posted several photographs on Chinese microblogs of collapsed buildings.
A man who answered the phone at the Ya'an city government told the Associated Press that telecommunications were cut and that medical and rescue teams are on the way to the area.
