At least 180 people died and more than 11,000 people were left injured after a powerful earthquake struck over the weekend in China’s southwestern Szechuan province.
The earthquake triggered landslides and disrupted phone and power connections in the mountainous Lushan county. In the village of Longmen, nearly all buildings had been destroyed in just one minute.
The China Earthquake Administration states that at least 156 people had died, including another 96 in Lushan. In Ya’an, 19 people were reported missing and more than 5,500 people were injured.
The earthquake was reported to have a magnitude of 7.0. It struck at the steep hills of Lushan just after 8am, when many people were at home, sleeping or having breakfast.
The Chinese Red Cross said it had deployed relief teams with supplies of food, water, medicine and rescue equipment to the disaster areas.
Source: Channel News Asia, CBC