A massive earthquake rocked southwestern China Monday, killing thousands of people and creating a new crisis for Chinese leaders as they prepare to host the Olympics this summer.
The quake, which China's State Seismological Bureau measured at magnitude 7.8 and the U.S. Geological Survey said was magnitude 7.9, struck in the middle of the afternoon, flattening school buildings, shops and homes across a wide, mountainous area around the epicenter in China's Sichuan province.
Initial reports from China's state-run media suggested a grim human toll, likely to make the quake one of China's worst natural disasters in recent decades, although the exact scale of the devastation wasn't clear in the immediate aftermath, in part because of damage to communications lines in the affected area. Nearly nine hours after the quake, Sichuan's government estimated that at least 8,533 people in the province had perished, while deaths were also reported in the neighboring regions of Gansu and Chongqing.
China's leaders moved immediately to demonstrate their concern over the disaster. Premier Wen Jiabao left Beijing for the affected area within hours of the quake, while state-run media quoted President Hu Jintao as calling for an "all-out" rescue effort. The People's Liberation Army dispatched 6,100 soldiers and four helicopters from its Chengdu Military Area Command to aid the relief effort, Xinhua said.
Read the report by Jason Dean, Loretta Chao, Jason Leow and Gordon Fairclough:
