Hundreds die as quake hits remote Chinese region

An earthquake struck the remote Chinese province of Qinghai this morning, killing at least 600 people and trapping many more under rubble. The 7.1 magnitude quake occurred at 7.49 am local time - just before midnight GMT - and was followed by two smaller tremors.

It comes almost two years after China suffered a massive earthquake in Sichuan province which left 87,000 people dead or missing. Five million people lost their lives when that quake struck on May 12, 2008, and the rebuilding programme has barely begun.
 
The epicentre of today's quake was 240 miles south-south-east of the city of Golmud, at a depth of six miles, according to US Geological Survey data. More than 85 per cent of buildings near the epicentre have collapsed, according to Agence France Presse.

The rescue effort is expected to be hampered by the sheer remoteness of the western region, which is mostly populated by Tibetans. There is no local airport for troops to fly into. Instead, troops must travel by road from the provincial capital Xining, 500 miles away.

"The difficulty we face is that we don't have any excavators," a local military official, Shi Huajie, told China's state broadcaster this morning.

"Many of the people have been buried and our soldiers are trying to pull them out with human labour. It is very difficult to save people with our bare hands."

The region, which is dotted with coal, tin, lead and copper mines, is prone to quakes. Last August the town of Ziketan had to be sealed off following an outbreak of pneumonic plague, the deadlier relative of bubonic plague or 'black death' which killed an estimated 25m Europeans in the Middle Ages. ·