China earthquake leaves 200 people dead or missing, 11,800 injured and an estimated 100,000 homeless

More than 200 people are dead or missing after the powerful earthquake rocked Sichuan, South-West China – rekindling memories of the devastating shock along the same faultline that killed tens of thousands in the province five years ago next month.

Another 11,800 are injured, almost 1,000 in critical condition, and an estimated 100,000 homeless. Blocked roads and damaged communications have hampered efforts to rescue survivors and provide emergency shelter and supplies, with aftershocks of 5.4 magnitude triggering repeated landslides.

The wreckage of the 6.6 magnitude quake lay strewn across the area around the epicentre near Ya'an city. A car crushed by a huge boulder; cracks in the roads and toppled telegraph poles; ceilings and walls that had slammed to the ground; pavements thick with bricks strewn by slumping buildings; a house now useless but so new that its windows still bore tape when they crashed from their frames. In one sagging building, an enormous hog, loosed by the quake, rooted through its master's destroyed kitchen.

According to Chinese state media, rescuers had pulled a three-month-old baby alive from the rubble of her mountain home, although her mother had died in the quake. In another development, a 12-year-old girl reportedly emerged from a coma as she was treated at a military hospital in Chengdu after she was dug out of the ruins of their house.

Most of the survivors from the disaster were pleading for more water and tents from the relief team
in Xinhua. Relief teams quickly set up tents in some areas, it was still lacking for most of the survivors. There was shortage of water and begging for more tents even to the point of some survivors holding cardboard signs for water and tents.

Disease prevention work has already started, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said, and psychological help will be provided for vulnerable people.