Chinese top leaders call for efforts to aid quake zone

8 September Xinhua ,BBC

President Hu Jintao and other top leaders called for immediate efforts to help with disaster relief work in southwest China, where multiple earthquakes have killed at least 67 people.Hu, who is in Russia's city of Vladivostok for an annual economic leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, said authorities should work to ensure safety of lives and property in the quake zone.

Other top leaders, including top legislator Wu Bangguo, premier Wen Jiabao, vice premier Hui Liangyu, Central Military Commission Vice Chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou also made instructions for rescue work.In a meeting on relief work held en route to the quake zone, Premier Wen stressed that efforts to save lives should come first to minimize casualties.He said intensified efforts will be needed to take care of the injured, as well as restore infrastructure facilities that were damaged to facilitate the rescue work.

The premier asked authorities to provide adequate supplies of water, food, clothing and shelter for local residents affected by the quakes.After withstanding the test of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, China is confident and capable in its ability to cope with natural disasters, he said.

Two quakes measuring 5.7 and 5.6 on the Richter scale hit a border area near Yiliang in Yunnan and Weining county in Guizhou province at 11:19 a.m. and 12:16 p.m. Friday, respectively.So far 67 people have been confirmed dead and 731 others injured.

Rescuers in Yunnan Province said on Friday night they had reached 90 percent of the six quake-hit counties under Zhaotong, where a total of 740,000 people had been affected by the quakes.The disaster has so far incurred 3.5 billion yuan (551 million U.S. dollars) in direct economic losses, Yunnan's civil affairs department said.Officials in Guizhou said two people were injured and lives of nearly 28,000 people were disrupted in Weining county.

A series of earthquakes has hit south-west China, leaving at least 64 people dead and 715 injured, state-run media say. The quakes struck the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, with the largest felt at 11:19 Beijing time (03:19 GMT), Xinhua news agency said.

The US Geological Survey registered the two strongest of the series of quakes at 5.6 magnitude. The quakes affected mostly mountainous areas that saw landslides, reports say. Premier Wen Jiabao is making his way to the area, according to Xinhua. Zhang Junwei, a spokesman from the Yunnan seismological bureau, told the Associated Press (AP) agency that most of the deaths were from Yunnan's Yiliang county.

"The casualty number is still being compiled. I don't know what was like for the other towns, but my town got hit badly," another government official in Yiliang told AP. No deaths have been reported in Guizhou so far.

Aid agencies say they are concerned about the plight of children in the two provinces following the quakes. "We are especially worried about those who may have been separated from their parents, as more aftershocks are expected to hit the area," Save the Children in China Country Director Pia MacRae said.The death toll may rise further, especially in areas affected by landslides, Xinhua says.

"Roads are blocked and rescuers have to climb the mountains to reach hard-hit villages," Li Fuchun, head of Yunnan's Luozehe town, was quoted as saying. Xinhua reported that at least 100,000 people have been evacuated and earlier reports said that more than 20,000 houses were damaged. Mobile and regular phone service in the area was experiencing disruption, according to reports.

Hundreds of local residents had gathered on streets littered with bricks and rocks, television footage from state-run broadcaster CCTV showed.

Users of the Twitter-like wesbite Weibo reported people rushing out of shaking office buildings, and photos posted online also showed streets strewn with rubble. Hotel staff in the city of Zhaotong in Yunnan told the BBC that the quake shook the building, knocking things from tables and shelves, reports the BBC's John Sudworth.

They said that people had been asked to leave their rooms and traffic had stopped in the streets, but there are no signs of panic, our correspondent adds.

Local officials said teams had been sent to distribute tents and blankets to those affected.