BEIJING – The toll from a strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake in southwestChina rose to 12 dead and 134 injured on Tuesday as rescuers pulled bodiesand survivors from wrecked buildings.
More than 4,000 people were relocated as dozens of structures were damagedor collapsed following late Monday’s earthquake outside Yibin in Sichuanprovince, according to the city government.
State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of rescuers bringing a survivor outof the rubble of a building on a stretcher overnight. Other images showed awoman being helped out of another collapsed structure.
Images from Changning County showed an electricity pole knocked down on theroof of a building, a hole in a brick home and broken windows on the street.
Cracks appeared in several highways and a major highway connecting Yibinand Xuyong County was closed, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Xinhua reported overnight that a hotel close to the epicentre collapsed,but there was no immediate word of any casualties.
An early warning alarm system was triggered in the provincial capitalChengdu about one minute before the earthquake struck, Xinhua said. Thealert rang 10 seconds before it hit Yibin.
A three-second headstart before an earthquake strikes can prevent 14percent of casualties, Xinhua said.Nine people died in Changning County and three others in Qixian County, theYibin city government said in its Twitter-like Weibo account, up from aninitial death toll of six overnight. Rescuers pulled six bodies and sevensurvivors from buildings, it said.
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Xinhua said more than 50 people were being treated in two hospitals.
More than 500 firefighters have been dispatched to the scene. Rescuepersonnel were also sent with 5,000 tents, 10,000 folding cots and otheremergency supplies, Xinhua reported.
The area was hit by a series of at least four aftershocks, the largest ofwhich had a magnitude of 5.1. The US Geological Survey put the magnitude ofthe main quake at 5.8.
Earthquakes regularly strike Sichuan, where a powerful 7.9-magnitude quakeleft 87,000 people dead or missing in 2008.
In February, three earthquakes hit Rongxian county in the province, killingtwo people and injuring 12 others — casualties that residents blamed onfracking.
Local authorities later halted shale gas mining after thousands ofresidents protested.
