Quake kills 23, collapses buildings near China's Great Wall

January 10, 1998
Web posted at: 5:31 a.m. EST (1031 GMT)

BEIJING (CNN) -- A powerful earthquake rocked northern China Saturday, killing more than 20 people and toppling dozens of buildings near the Great Wall. Residents in Beijing, about about 150 miles (240 km) away, said they felt buildings shake beneath them.

The magnitude 6.2 quake injured another 60 people in Zhangbei and Shangyi counties, including some seriously, the state-run Xinhua News Agency. The agency said at least 23 people were killed.

Rescue crews were searching through the rubble for possible survivors. In Shangyi, peasant homes of mud and brick collapsed.

"Houses split, walls cracked and glass shattered," said Wang Haiyan of the local seismology office.

At least 47 buildings were destroyed and 800 buildings were slightly damaged.

The quake struck at 11:50 a.m., a time when many people are indoors eating or preparing lunch. The epicenter was in Shangyi County in the Yan Mountains, a farming area where villages are widely dispersed.

A team of experts from the State Seismology Bureau in Beijing was sent to Shangyi to oversee rescue operations, according to Xinhua.

In Zhangjiakou, 60 miles (96 km) from Shangyi, guests at a hotel ran outside in fright.

"The building shook. Things shook" for several seconds, said a switchboard operator at the Zhangjiakou Guest House who gave only her surname, Zhao. She said no buildings in the area collapsed.

She and other local government officials refused to estimate how many buildings had collapsed. They said the county's rough terrain makes a quick assessment difficult.

North of Shangyi is one of the sections of fortifications that form the Great Wall.

Aftershocks are likely to hit the region, Xinhua said, quoting government seismologists.

Many Chinese view earthquakes and other natural disasters as signs of political turbulence. Revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung died two months in 1976 after the last major quake hit north China -- a magnitude-8.3 quake that killed more than 240,000 people in Tangshan.

---

 

---

Sound off on our message boards & chat

© 1998 Cable News Network, Inc.
A Time Warner Company
All Rights Reserved.

Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.