By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 27 minutes ago  read 1037 CDT August 31, 2008

BEIJING - Chinese rescue teams carrying tents, quilts and sacks of rice rushed Sunday to reach survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 27 people, turned tens of thousands of homes into rubble and cracked reservoirs. 

The 6.1-magnitude quake struck Sichuan province on Saturday along the same fault line as the May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000. Dozens of evacuees were assembled on a primary school field in Panzhihua, footage from state broadcaster China Central Television showed. Wrapped in quilts, the evacuees, including children and the elderly, lay on plastic sheets and mats on the ground. Saturday's quake killed 22 people in Sichuan and five in the neighboring province of Yunnan, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The quake damaged major bridges and cracked three reservoirs, the agency said. Another 362 people were injured and three were missing after the earthquake hit 31 miles southeast of Panzhihua city in the southwestern corner of Sichuan on Saturday afternoon, the report said. About 40,000 people were evacuated and relief efforts were under way, despite being hampered by heavy rains and the region's rugged terrain, Xinhua said. It said 6,200 tents, 3,500 quilts and 55,000 pounds of rice were sent to the quake zone. Since the 7.9-magnitude temblor on May 12, the region has been hit by scores of aftershocks.

A woman who answered the phone at Sichuan provincial seismological bureau said the region was hit by about 300 aftershocks on Sunday morning. She declined to give her name, saying she was not authorized to speak to the media. Later on Sunday, a 5.6 magnitude aftershock was recorded in the same location as Saturday's quake, the administration said in a separate statement posted on its Web site. It was not immediately clear what damage the aftershock caused.

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China quake kills 38, damages quarter million homes

BEIJING, Sept 1 (Reuters) - An earthquake that hit China's southwest killed 38 people, Xinhua news agency said on Monday, two days after the most recent in a series of tremors to hit the region.  The quake hit the mountainous border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, near an area still reeling from the May 12 quake which killed at least 70,000 people.  The region has suffered hundreds of smaller but still serious quakes since then. Saturday's quake injured 467 people and forced 152,000 to flee. Over 250,000 homes were damaged, Xinhua said.  The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 5.7, while Xinhua said it measured 6.1. A slightly smaller aftershock hit around 24 hours later, but there were no immediate reports of further damage. The government was rushing disaster relief to the affected areas, including thousands of tents and blankets.

Sichuan province, known for its pandas and fiery cuisine, has struggled to rebuild after the May disaster, which left 10 million people homeless. (Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Reuters September 1, 2008 0225  CDT

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New school term put on hold in latest quake-hit Chinese regions

2008-09-01 16:03:21     PANZHIHUA, Sichuan, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Schooling in some southwestern regions hit by Saturday's earthquake was suspended for seven days on Monday, the start of a new term for the country's primary and middle schools.     The municipal government of Panzhihua, Sichuan Province, one of the hard-hit areas in the 6.1-magnitude tremor that killed at least 38 people in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, announced Monday that schools and kindergartens will not open for a further seven days.
    "School buildings suffered damage. A strict safety overhaul will be held on all schools, and the new term will begin on Sept. 8," said the government.     There are nearly 500 kindergartens, primary and middle schools in Panzhihua, for 150,000 students, said Shen Zhiqiang, an official with the city's educational bureau.

    Huili county, the worst-hit area reporting 25 deaths so far, postponed the school opening to Saturday as 20 percent of its school buildings were damaged, according to Li Meihua, head of the county's educational bureau.      The quake affected 153 of the 290 primary and middle schools in the county, causing damage to 2,520 school houses and incurring 140 million yuan (20.5 million U.S. dollars) in economic loss, Li said.      The local authorities were trying all out to repair destroyed facilities and establish tent schools for the new term and rearranging the timetable. 

    In Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Chuxiong, Yunnan, more than 18,800 students of 154 schools were not able to go to school after some 4,400 rooms in schools were destroyed or collapsed in the quake.      Some of them are expected to resume class in three days as workers are busy setting up tent schools or makeshift classrooms.     The prefecture reports about 420,000 school-aged children and more than 400,000 of them went to school Monday in unaffected areas.      The quake occurred Saturday afternoon, killing at least 38 people in Panzhihua and Huili in Sichuan and six others in the neighboring Yunnan so far.

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Heavy rain bogs down evacuation after quake in China

Washington Post and New York Times

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

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Quake kills 32, injures over 400

By Huang Zhiling and Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-01 06:50

CHENGDU: Thirty-two people have died, more than 400 injured and over 100,000 homes destroyed or damaged after an earthquake hit Sichuan and Yunnan provinces around 4:30 pm on Saturday.

The epicenter of the 6.1-magnitude quake, which has affected 500,000 people, was about 30 km southeast of Panzhihua city, near the Sichuan-Yunnan border, the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) said. Kunming, provincial capital of Yunnan, too has suffered some damage. The quake was followed by a 5.6-magnitude aftershock Sunday, but there were no reports of further damage.

Altogether, 656 schools have been damaged, and heavy rain, difficult terrain and disruptions in mobile telephone communications are hampering rescue efforts, officials said. The injured are being treated in makeshift tents, though. Among the worst-hit areas are Panzhihua and Huili, both in Sichuan, and the Yi autonomous prefecture of Chuxiong, Bai autonomous prefecture of Dali and Zhaotong city in Yunnan.

Most of the deaths were reported from Huili in Liangshan, followed by Chuxiong and Panzhihua. The three are on the southern end of the fault line of the devastating May 12 quake that killed 69,226 people, and left 17,923 missing and 374,643 injured. Liu Jie, chief forecaster of the Chinese Seismographic Information Center, said another 6-plus magnitude quake was not expected to hit the area in the next two weeks. Scientists, however, had recorded more than 300 aftershocks till 5 am Sunday.

Panzhihua's office for the emergency response said preliminary investigations showed three people were killed and 65 injured. The city's quake control and relief headquarters said 363 houses were destroyed and 38,062 damaged, as were seven reservoirs, 22 highways and three bridges. Jing Peilang, a Panzhihua quake control and relief official, said more than 40 primary and middle schools would not open for the new semester that starts today.

In Yunnan, about 440,000 people have been hit by the quake in four of its regions . The CEA has sent rescue and relief teams to the quake-hit areas, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs has activated an emergency response mechanism. Panzhihua's government officials have dispatched relief materials to the quake-hit areas. Authorities have mobilized 2,000 rescue and relief workers in Huili, and sent 1,200 tents and 10 tons of food and water to the affected areas. And the Yunnan provincial bureau of civil affairs has dispatched 3,200 tents, 1,000 quilts, 25 tons of rice and other relief materials.