Tremblors hit area west of Tibetan capital, 15 minutes apart

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BEIJING - Two earthquakes jolted the capital of Tibet and surrounding areas yesterday, killing more than 30 people and collapsing hundreds of houses. Rescuers rushed in to try to save people buried in the rubble.

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The Associated Press

Belongings carried out by residents from the damaged building in Gedar, Tibet lie on the ground yesterday. Two earthquakes jolted the capital of Tibet and surrounding areas yesterday, killing more than 30 people.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake had a magnitude of 6.6 and struck at 4:30 p.m. about 80 kilometres west of Lhasa, more than 2,600 kilometres from Beijing. The second temblor measuring magnitude 5.1 hit about 15 minutes later, some 96 kilometres west of the Tibetan capital, it said.

Thirty people died and hundreds of houses collapsed in Gedar township near the epicentre in Dangxiong County, and traffic and telecommunications were cut. An unknown number of people were trapped, and soldiers and rescue workers were dispatched to the site.

Deaths also were reported in a neighbouring county, but no figures were available. The Lhasa airport and the Qinghai-Tibet railway - which stretches from western Qinghai province to Tibet - continued to operate, the agency said.

China says Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for most of that time. On March 14, monk-led protests against Chinese rule turned violent in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, and ethnic Chinese residents were attacked.

China's State Seismological Bureau said the initial quake was centred in Dangxiong county, which has a population of about 42,000 people, mostly herdsmen.

"I felt the building shaking a little bit and saw a bench overturn," said Ge San, an employee at the Baima Hotel in Dangxiong, who was sitting in a room with about five other employees.

"The shaking was not heavy. We stayed in the room and were not frightened," she said, adding that all the hotel's guests remained on the premises.

In Lhasa, employees at the Civil Affairs Bureau rushed out of their building when the tremors began but returned soon after, said an official who refused to give her name.

"I was in my office on the third floor," she said. "The shaking lasted for about half a minute."

Xinhua said that so far, none of the city's landmarks, such as the Potala Palace, appeared to be damaged.

One of the agency's reporters in Lhasa said shops remained open and there was no panic on the streets.

Authorities said seismologists and officials were sent to the area and were assessing the situation.

China's far west is fairly earthquake prone. On Sunday, a magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook the Xinjiang region, which borders Tibet, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which also suffered a 6.6-magnitude quake hours later. At least 60 people were killed when a village collapsed.