Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Prime Minister Wen Jiabao
visited the area in the southwest of China, rocked yesterday by a series
of earthquakes (see AsiaNews 07/09/2012 Series
of earthquakes in south-west: seven dead, dozens injured and 20 thousand homes
destroyed), which
has claimed at least 80 victims. He
met with the families of the victims and gave a speech at a reception center
for evacuees, while rescuers are still trying to access the most remote and
isolated areas affected by violent shocks, which are concentrated in the border
between the provinces Yunnan and Guizhou. The
China Earthquake Networks
Center (Cenc) pointed out
that the main telluric movement developed at a depth of 14 km underground and showed
an intensity of 5.7 magnitude.
Xinhua
reports that officials in Yunnan
say 6,650 homes are destroyed and 430 thousand are damaged, some irreversibly. So
far 100 thousand people have been evacuated and the International Red Cross has
sent 650 tents and at least 3 thousand blankets to the area. The
injured are believed to be at least 730, but the figures are still provisional.
The
area most affected is Yiliang County,
Yunnan Province, where the
victims of the earthquake were registered (except one). Communication
and power lines are down.
CCTV
state television released images depicting hundreds of people piling up in the
streets, crammed with bricks and cement, for fear of possible new building collapses.
Among
the major sources of concern the fate of children who have lost their parents, who
died as a result of the earthquake or who became lost in the general confusion
caused by the earthquake.
In
fact, the vulnerability of buildings is one of the main reasons for the high
number of victims, whenever there are earthquakes in China. In
fact, although the country has a high seismic risk in many areas, the houses -
particularly in poor, rural areas - are crumbling and built with low quality
materials. In
2008, a
7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan
province in the north of Yunnan,
causing almost 90 thousand dead, many of them from the collapse of buildings, including
public schools, due to poor workmanship and materials as well as insufficient criteria
.