School children still trapped after quake
Updated
A huge earthquake in southwest China, has killed at least 10,000 people and was felt as far away as the Thai capital, Bangkok, 1,800 kilometres from the epicentre.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Amanda Morgan, Beijing based journalist
MORGAN: Well the information is coming in slowly, as you mentioned the earthquake hit in Sichuan province and particularly in the Wenchuan county, which has a small population, about 100-thousand people, but it's very close to Chengdu, which is a city of 10-million people. Close to the epicentre is Beichuan county where it's believed most of the people have died. It's reported that in that country about 80 per cent of the buildings were completely destroyed. There are also reports of chemical plants collapsing with ammonia being leaking into the streets, hospitals have been razed as well as schools, which I guess for some people is the most distressing part of this is there's a lot of school children involved in this.
LAM: Well the death toll stands at almost ten-thousand now, but it seems almost certain to rise doesn't it?
MORGAN: That's right, there's a lot of people that have been trapped under rubble and that's the concerning aspect here is trying to get these people out. There's one school in particular that has about 900 students trapped underneath and the fate of these students is still unknown. Last night about 50 bodies were retrieved but we're still not hearing how many more students are able or have been able to get out of the wreckage there. But I guess the difficulty is also is that where the epicentre of the earthquake happened it's very hilly mountainous area and it's quite remote, so rescue teams are finding it very difficult to access the worst hit areas. And scientists are saying that the soils in these areas are very unstable which is causing such a high number of buildings to collapse and this has led to inaccessibility because of rock and mud slides. So that's the problem at the moment is for the rescue and aid teams finding it difficult to get in.
LAM: Indeed as you say it's a rather unfriendly geographical region. What do you know about the local authorities coping, what is the news there?
MORGAN: Well the Chinese President Hu Jintao has basically said the government will do all that it can to help and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao flew into Chengdu last night which is the large city near the epicentre and he's basically running the disaster relief and has called on all party officials at all levels to help on the frontline. So because of as I mentioned the difficulty for people to get in there's a lot of reports that the rescue effort is just being done by hand because they're not able to get the appropriate rescue workers in and equipment that can help move the rubble. So there's a lot of people just on the ground helping by hand, doing all that they can to help. Last night the government did also is sending in a lot of their own rescue teams, they've got military planes and helicopters in, the Chinese newspapers say about five-thousand soldiers and three-thousand police have also been sent in to help with the relief. The Chinese Red Cross has also sent tents and thousands of blankets in. But again as I mentioned the problem is is getting to these worst affected areas, there's still not a lot of word coming out from those areas.
LAM: And just very briefly Amanda we reported that some buildings moved in Beijing. Where were you when the quake struck? Did you feel anything?
MORGAN: Yeah we certainly did, all the ABC staff were in the office and Beijing itself had its own earthquake of three-point-nine yesterday, just minutes after this larger earthquake. So whether it was its own or an effect from the larger one we're not sure, but we certainly were all in the office at the time and the building certainly moved and our chairs were moving and it was a little nerve wrecking, and so everyone knew exactly what was happening and we all raced downstairs, as did many people across Beijing and Shanghai as well. All the office blocks were emptied and there were thousands of people on the streets.
