Submitted by crinadmin on
[13 May 2008] - The number of deaths from China’s earthquake yesterday is reported at 11,921 with almost 7000 hospitalised and 60,000 unable to be reached. The numbers are likely to climb once communications are restored. Zhang Hong, Director of Support Services for Save the Children in China said “Children suffered hugely from the impact of this quake when it struck mid afternoon while they were gathered in schools. Old and weak buildings also mean that the students affected are spread over an extremely large area. Near the epicenter, around 60-80 per cent of buildings have been destroyed.†Zhang Hong continued: “It’s terrible to watch as school after school is reported collapsed and to see children being rescued from under the rubble. The panic amongst the children as the quake struck caused stampedes in schools as they were evacuated by their teachers. “We have been asked to help get these children back into school – a logical area for us to work on seeing as we have staff in the country already. Schools are supposed to be safe areas for children – we must try and reinstall some normality back into their lives now as soon as we can.†Communications, electricity and roads are down in the area closet to the epicenter. Rail lines have been ruptured and mobile phone towers are down. There are currently around 50,000 of China’s rescue and relief forces helping with the relief work, some of whom walked in the 45 miles to get to the epicentre down roads impassable to vehichles. While the relief effort from the government has been massive and rapid, the full extent is still being assessed including the impact on children who were particularly vulnerable while at school during the quake. 160 kilometres northeast from the epicenter in Beichuan county, 100 students and teachers are reported dead or missing in a high school In a neighbouring city to the epicenter, Dujiangyan, 900 children are still feared buried in the quake. In the same area, 420 pupils of Xianghe Middle School were buried when their school collapsed, with 370 of these pupils already confirmed dead. Eighty one students are confirmed dead in Shifang city, with 920 students from the school still buried. And in a school 30 kilometers from the epicentre, 200 pupils were also trapped by the rubble when their school toppled. In Deyang and Aba Prefecture near the epicenter several schools have collapsed though numbers of confirmed dead are not yet being reported In Chongqing’s outer Liangping County, more than 5 students were killed and 100 were injured when two schools collapsed. Â