Villages reduced to rubble

Villagers try to comfort Bao Shufang, who lost her daughter in the earthquake that struck Minxian county, Gansu province, on Monday morning.

Gansu earthquake leaves 89 dead, nearly 700 injured and five missing

Zhu Wenqing, a 40-year-old farmer in Gansu province, had just gotten up on Monday when his house started shaking.

Zhu, who farms in Majiagou, a village in Meichuan, said he escaped immediately on hearing a bang and feeling a tremor.

But the house later collapsed following seven or eight aftershocks from a magnitude-6.6 earthquake that by late Monday had left 89 people dead, nearly 700 injured and another five missing.

Zhu Xueqiao, a 58-year-old woman in Majiagou, said she could not accept that three of her grandchildren had died in the disaster. "How can I live on after two of my grandsons and one granddaughter passed away?"

The children were asleep when the quake struck. The adults in the family were in the yard but could not save them.

"Four of my family's five houses were brought down in last year's mudslide, and now the quake has killed my grandchildren. I almost want to go with them," Zhu Xueqiao said.

Rescuers are striving to save survivors after the quake jolted Minxian and Zhangxian counties in Dingxi, Gansu, at 7:45 am.

Villagers said the victims were mainly elderly and children who were unable to escape from collapsing houses. Minxian reported the bulk of the casualties, with 86 deaths and five people missing.

At least 550 people were sent to hospitals, 60 of them seriously injured.

More than 34,700 residents have been evacuated, the Dingxi government said on its micro blog late on Monday, adding that 17,300 houses were destroyed and the same number extensively damaged.

According to an initial assessment, the city has suffered direct losses of 2.45 billion yuan ($400 million).

As of 4 pm on Monday, 411 aftershocks had been recorded in the quake-hit region, with the strongest measuring 5.6 in magnitude, Chang Zhengguo, spokesman for the provincial government, said at a news conference in Lanzhou, the provincial capital.

President Xi Jinping called for an all-out rescue effort, with saving lives the top priority. He told local authorities to evacuate people from dangerous areas promptly and to arrange for those affected to be settled properly.

Premier Li Keqiang demanded that government departments send rescue and relief forces and aid to the area as soon as possible.

Two helicopters and about 3,000 armed police, firefighters, local militiamen and local government staff have been sent to the quake-hit region to help with the rescue efforts.