300 killed, 8,000 wounded as 7.0 quake struck China

A series of strong earthquakes struck West China on Wednesday, killing at least 300 people, injuring thousands and burying many others under toppled houses in a mountainous rural area.The quake struck at 380km (240 miles) south-south-east of the city of Golmud, at a depth of 10km. It appears that at least some of the deaths occurred in Qinghai's ethnic Tibetan town of Yushu, while the quake was ensued by two tremors measuring 5.3 and 5.2. The rescue efforts are underway as rescuers are trying to pull the trapped people. A lot of one-storey houses have collapsed. Taller buildings have held up, but there are big cracks in them. A foreign news agency notes that the remote high-altitude region is prone to earthquakes. The region, which is home to ethnic Mongolians and Tibetan farmers and herdsmen, is dotted with coal, tin, lead and copper mines, it adds.