On Monday, at least 8,500 people have been killed by one of the deadliest earthquakes in China's recent history. The death toll is expected to rise as the quake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck the mountainous Sichuan province in southwestern China.
The casualties include almost 900 students who were buried alive after the earthquake caused a middle school building to collapse, China's official news agency Xinhua reported.
More schoolchildren were reported to have died when five primary school buildings collapsed in the Chongqing area near Sichuan province.
Xinhua said 8,533 people died in Sichuan and dozens of other deaths were reported elsewhere.
The quake struck at 2.30 p.m. local time, when classes and offices were running in full swing.
Office buildings across the country were evacuated after the incident, and the effects of the quake could be felt as far away as Vietnam. Telephone networks and power connections crashed in parts of Chengdu, leaving the city of 10 million in darkness.
The earthquake and its aftershocks were felt in cities across Southeast Asia, including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Hanoi.
The earthquake also shook buildings in Beijing for more than three minutes, stopping traffic. However, there have been no reports of injuries or damage to buildings in the capital. Additionally, the Three Gorges Dam, located in the region, was said to be unharmed. A spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Committee said that no Olympic venues were affected by the quake.
The revelation of the death toll was delayed as authorities and rescue teams found it difficult to contact the worst hit areas of Sichuan province, where roads and phone lines have been cut off.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is visiting the quake-hit areas to supervise rescue work, and troops are being sent to help with disaster relief efforts.
The Chinese government declared a "level 2" emergency, the second-most serious category, to respond to the earthquake damage.
Forty-four aftershocks have been reported since the quake, which was the strongest to hit Sichuan province in more than 30 years, according to Xinhua. Gansu and Yunnan are the other worst hit provinces.
The official Xinhua News Agency said 80 percent of the buildings have collapsed and 10,000 people were injured in Beichuan County.
Buildings toppled in at least six counties near the epicenter at Beichuan. Several hundred workers were buried after two chemical plants collapsed onto them in Sichuan's Shifang city.
China is prone to seismic activity and has seen many strong earthquakes in the past. Monday's disaster is the worst since an earthquake hit northern China in 1976, killing 242000 people.
The area where Monday's earthquake struck lies on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau.
Meanwhile, the European Commission and Japan offered China aid in the wake of the earthquake. U.S. President George W Bush has expressed his condolences over the earthquake, the White House said.
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