XINING, China — China poured workers and equipment into a mountainous Tibetan region today in an effort to find survivors more than a day after strong earthquakes killed more than 600 people and injured thousands.
The series of quakes, which began Wednesday morning, flattened buildings across remote western Yushu County and sent survivors, many bleeding from their wounds, flooding into the streets of Jiegu township. State television showed block after devastated block of toppled mud and wood homes. Local officials said 85 percent of the structures had been destroyed.
Residents and troops pulled survivors and bodies from the rubble much of the day. Several schools collapsed, with the state Xinhua news agency saying at least 56 students died. Worst hit was the Yushu Vocational School, where a local education official said 22 students died.
Footage on Qinghai Satellite TV showed bodies in blankets on the ground as rescuers pulled shards of concrete from a pancaked school building.
Crews set up emergency generators to restore operations at Yushu’s airport, and by late afternoon, the first of six flights landed with rescue workers and equipment. But the road to town was blocked by a landslide, hampering the rescue as temperatures dropped below freezing. Tens of thousands of the town’s 70,000 people were without shelter, state media said.
The airport in Xining, the nearest big city, about 530 miles away, was filled with Chinese troops in camouflage, firefighters and dozens of rescue workers with sniffer dogs. The airport had been closed to civilian flights for several hours Wednesday night to make way for the rescue effort.
“The situation here is difficult. Most of the buildings have collapsed. A lot of people are seriously injured,” said Pu Wu, a director of the Jinba Project, which provides health care training for Tibetan communities. “We are scared. We are all camping outside and waiting for more tents to come.”
While China’s military is well-practiced in responding to disasters, the remote location posed logistical difficulties. The area sits at around 13,000 feet and is poor. Most people live in Jiegu, with the remaining — mostly herders — scattered across the broad valleys. The small airport has no refueling supplies, so relief flights were carrying extra jet fuel, reducing their capacity for hauling supplies, state media reported.
CCTV said the death toll had risen to 617 by late this morning, with more than 9,000 injured — including 970 seriously — and around 300 still missing. The Ministry of Civil Affairs said about 15,000 houses had collapsed and 100,000 people needed to be relocated.
China’s president, Hu Jintao, and Premier Wen Jiabao urged “all-out efforts” to rescue survivors and dispatched a vice premier to supervise the effort.
