'Hundreds buried' by China quake

Almost 900 students have been buried by collapsed buildings during an earthquake in south-western China, state media reports.

President Hu Jintao urged "all-out" efforts to rescue victims of the quake, which hit 92km (57 miles) from Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital.

Premier Wen Jiabao is travelling to the area and troops are being sent to help with disaster relief efforts.

At least 107 people are reported to have died, but figures could rise.

Children killed

Full details of the incident which buried 900 students are not yet clear.

They were buried in buildings at Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan city, about 100km (60 miles) from the epicentre in Wenchuan County, state news agency Xinhua reports.

Earlier, four schoolchildren were reported to have died, and more than 100 others were injured, when primary school buildings collapsed in the Chongqing area near Sichuan province, the news agency added.

Another person is reported to have died when a water tower collapsed in the city of Mianyang, in Santai county.

There are fears of further casualties.

At least 10 people are reported to have been injured in Dujiangyan city when rows of houses collapsed.

A spokesman for the provincial seismological bureau told Xinhua more people were feared injured or dead.

Forty-four aftershocks have been reported since the quake, which was the strongest to hit Sichuan province in more than 30 years, Xinhua reports.

The BBC's Quentin Somerville says the Chinese army has a good record of mobilising and getting people to safety.

State television said the quake had not caused major damage to Chengdu, which has a population of more than 10 million people, or to the nearby Three Gorges Dam.

RECENT CHINA QUAKES March, 2008: 7.2 quake in Xinjiang - damage limited February 2003: 6.8 quake in Xinjiang - at least 94 dead, 200 hurt January 1998: 6.2 quake in rural Hebei - at least 47 dead, 2,000 hurt April 1997: 6.6 quake hits Xinjiang - 9 dead, 60 hurt January 1997: 6.4 quake in Xinjiang - 50 dead, 40 hurt

In Chengdu, residents streamed on to the streets, cracks were reported in some buildings and water pipes burst.

"Some building are cracked, but nothing major, from what we can see in the area near our hotel," Gilles Barbier in Chengdu told the BBC News website.

"The quake was really strong, continuous. Two aftershocks could be felt."

Workers were evacuated from swaying buildings in several cities across China. Workers in Beijing - about 930 miles from Chengdu - said buildings shook for about two minutes.

In the city's financial district, people poured out of buildings, but there were no visible signs of damage.

China's tallest building, the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai, was also evacuated, Reuters news agency said.

Panic

Tremors were also felt as far afield as Beijing, the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Hanoi in Vietnam.

One student fainted as schools were evacuated across Sichuan province

Bobby Silby in Zhengzhou in Henan province said he was having lunch in a restaurant when he felt the tremors.

"It felt like the floor was moving all around me, everyone started running outside in a panic," he told the BBC news website. "The streets are still filled with people who haven't gone back into their buildings."

Telephone lines to the affected areas were jammed.

The area where Monday's earthquake struck lies on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau.

Wenchuan county is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's leading research and breeding base for endangered giant pandas.

Earthquakes are common in China - in March a 7.2 magnitude quake struck in western Xinjiang province.