Earthquake in Qinghai China 67 People Killed

At least 67 people were killed and many more buried under rubble after an earthquake with a strength of 7.1 on the Richter Scale (SR) rocked the Qinghai Province, northwest Chian, Wednesday morning, according to China Earthquake Supervisory Office.

More than 85 percent of homes near the epicenter, Municipal Jiegu, has collapsed, said Zhuohuaxia, broadcasting affairs officials in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. "Many people are buried under a collapsed house, and there are many more people are injured and being treated at local hospitals," he said.

Many elementary school students are buried, but their number is unknown, said Shi Huajie, police officers in the military in relief operations. "We mainly had to rely on our hands to clean the debris because we do not have a huge machine for doing the digging," he said. "We also had no medical equipment."

The quake shook the Yushu County in Yushu Prefecture, at 07:49 local time with a depth of about 33 kilometers. Estimated the quake's epicenter was 33.1 north latitude and 96.7 east longitude, according to China Earthquake Networks Center.

At least three aftershocks have been reported so far, the most powerful and registered 6.3 on the Richter scale around one hour 36 minutes later. Earlier, at 05:39 o'clock local time, an earthquake with a strength of 4.7 on the Richter scale rocked the district with a depth of about 6 miles, the center said.

The quake's epicenter was about 30 kilometers from the township Jiegu, Yushu Prefecture, central government, and about 800 kilometers from Xining, capital of the province.