UNICEF fears for children affected by earthquake in China

Beijing, 12 May, 2008 – UNICEF expressed growing alarm Tuesday for children affected by a powerful earthquake in south western China that toppled houses and schools, leaving at least 60 students dead and, at latest count, 4,720 children buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

"Information about this devastating earthquake has been coming in very slowly today. With each piece of news it seems another large group of school children has been found struggling to survive under the collapsed walls of their school," said Dr. Yin Yin Nwe, UNICEF Representative and Chair of the UN Disaster Management Team for China, "we are very worried about the effect of this disaster particularly on children."

UNICEF and UN agencies in China are standing by ready to provide assistance in the event they are called upon by government authorities.

The 8.0-magnitude quake hit Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province at 2:28 p.m. local time and also devastated a number of neighbouring cities and towns claiming a total of 11,921 people so far in eight affected provinces and municipalities. As news come in it appeared the devastation occurred across an area 100 kilometres long in mountainous, difficult to access terrain.

Earlier in the day rescuers were searching in the rain for survivors among blood-stained school uniforms and textbooks in the debris after a multi-story school in Beichuan County collapsed when the quake hit during school hours. About 1000 students and teachers were feared dead or missing.

On the playground, corpses were lined up and covered with plastic sheets, and the line kept growing. A twelve or thirteen year old girl whose legs were severely damaged due to compression was saved from the rubble. About 2,000 students, parents and refugees were waiting in the rain for rescue. "We need food and water most at present." Chen Linglin and her classmates said.

There are also disturbing reports of causalities coming from other parts of the quake-jolted areas. Fewer than 100 students out of 420 survived in a collapsed middle school in Xiang'e Township, in one of the worst-hit parts of Dujiangyan, about 100 km from epicentre. This adds to an earlier account that 900 students were feared buried in wreckages in the Juyuan Township Middle School in Dujiangyan.

Tuesday afternoon rescue and relief troops finally managed to reach the epicentre Wenchuan by foot. There is still no immediate word on casualties."We are in urgent need of tents, food, medicine and satellite communications equipment through air drop. We also need medical workers to save the injured people here," said Wang Bin, Communist Party secretary of Wenchuan County, Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, Sichuan Province, according to the state Xinhua news agency.

Sichuan is one of the poorest and most populous provinces in China. The total population of the province is approximately 85-90 million. The population of the capital Chengdu is over 10 million.

Photographer: Xu Jingxing, Asianewsphoto