China's earthquake death toll rises to 94

The death toll in twin shallow earthquakes in northwest China's Gansu province rose to 94 on Tuesday. Over 1,000 injured in the 6.6-magnitude earthquake jolted the juncture area of Minxian and Zhangxian counties in the city of Dingxi on Monday, official media reported.

The Gansu provincial earthquake emergency response centre said that one person remained missing. According to initial reports, about 51,800 houses have collapsed and 2.40 lakh houses severely damaged. Local governments have relocated over 2.26 lakh people, state-run Xinhua reported.

Reports in the official media said no casualties have been reported in schools so far from the earthquake as all the summer schools were closed for summer vacation. Thousands of relief workers were sent to clear the debris and rescue as many people as possible in the gold 42-hour-period. Two helicopters and about 3,000 armed police, firefighters, local militiamen and local government staff have been sent to the quake-hit region to help with rescue efforts.

The ministry of civil affairs has allotted 10,000 tents, 30,000 quilts and 10,000 sleeping bags to the quake-hit region. Train services on a major railway line have been suspended because of heavy rain and landslides that have occurred.

Falling rocks were reported in the mountainous region following the quake, posing a threat to rescuers`. The quake occurred on a fault zone in the province, which has recorded 25 earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 5, the China earthquake administration said. Residents in Minxian said the quake lasted for about a minute, with sources at the county government saying most of the townships in the area have been affected.

Wang Shan, an archaeologist from the Gansu provincial institute of historic relics and archaeology, said he and his colleagues ran out of their houses in Shuzha village in Minxian when the quake struck.

"We had just finished our breakfast. I could feel the earth was shaking vertically but the horizontal tremor was not very obvious," Shan told state-run China Daily. He said a series of aftershocks occurred in the morning and some of them were so strong that his family in Lanzhou could feel them.