Heard this news this morning, very big story, people usually call it the acts of God.

BEIJING — A powerful earthquake struck a mountainous region of western China on Monday, reportedly killing more than 8,500 people, including as many as 5,000 people in a single county, and trapping more than 900 students beneath a collapsed high school as tremors shook buildings throughout China and were felt as far away as Thailand and Vietnam, according to interviews and reports in China’s state media.

The earthquake was even stronger than the Tangshan earthquake of 1976, which killed more than 240,000 people died.



The 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit in Sichuan Province on Monday afternoon, and the death toll steadily increased throughout the evening, raising concerns that the number could go far higher.

Minutes after the western temblor, a second, smaller quake struck hundreds of miles away, in an outer district of Beijing. Thousands of office workers were evacuated, but no damage was reported in the city, which is preparing to play host to the Olympics in August.

The powerful initial quake struck at 2:28 p.m. local time, or 2:28 a.m. Eastern time, near Wenchuan County, according to China’s State Seismological Bureau. China’s massive Three Gorges Dam, located a few hundred miles east of the earthquake’s epicenter, reported no immediate problems. “There were no signs that the earthquake has affected the dam, and everything is going as usual,” Hu Xinge, an executive with the state-owned corporation operating the dam, told Xinhua.

More than 2,300 cell phone towers were knocked down by the quake, according to China Mobile, the country’s top carrier.