At least 4 dead as 7.8 quake hits China

A major earthquake has struck central China causing widespread panic but little reported damage. The USGS initially said the earthquake measured at 7.5 though Chinese authorities put the tremor at 7.8 on the Richter scale. This was later confirmed by the USGS. The large earthquake hit eastern Sichuan province in a mountainous region near to the town of Chengdu [31.119N, 103.258E]. Although striking close to the surface there were initially no reported injuries but tremors could be felt hundreds of miles away in the cities of Shanghai and Beijing. But two hours after the massive tremor Xinhua News Agency reported a school had collapsed killing four children and injuring 100 others. The incident occured in Chongqing municipality 360 km from the epicentre. Reporting for CNN, John Vause said many buildings in Beijing had been evacuated when the quake struck at 14:28 local time [06:28 GMT]. Bonnie Thie, Country Director for the Peace Corps, speaking from a university near Chengdu told CNN there had been “extensive shaking” and “there was a certain amount of people running and shouting”. She said she hadn’t seen any signs of major damage. However Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is said to be en-route to the area and President Hu has ordered a military response to the Wenchuan county to assist in any needed relief effort [Xinhua]. Meanwhile several aftershocks have been reported the largest of which measured 6.0 [Xinhua / BBC / Sky News].