CHONGQING, China — CHONGQING, China -- A powerful earthquake rocked China from mountains to coast yesterday afternoon, knocking down schools, homes and factories, and killing nearly 10,000 people.
The quake was centered in western China's Sichuan province but was so powerful that it was felt over thousands of miles from Beijing to Bangkok, Thailand. It forced the evacuation of China's tallest building, Shanghai's Jinmao Tower, and sent high-rise workers around the country scurrying for safety.
China instituted tight controls on information, setting up checkpoints to bar Chinese and foreign correspondents from severely affected areas.
The quake was first reported as magnitude 7.8. The U.S. Geological Survey now says it was 7.9.
Many of the dead were reported to be children. The New China News Agency said that at least eight schools had collapsed; one of them was a high school where, as of last night, workers were trying to rescue 900 teenagers trapped under the rubble.
The news agency said 8,533 people were killed in Sichuan.
The earthquake was recorded at 2:28 p.m. with an epicenter in Wenchuan county, about 60 miles to the northwest of Chengdu, Sichuan's capital. The area is best known for the Wolong Nature Reserve, the largest breeding ground of captive pandas. The area has a large Tibetan population and has been the scene of anti-Chinese protests.
Sichuan officials said that in Beichuan county, 80 percent of the buildings were reported to have collapsed. Deaths also were reported in Gansu and Yunnan provinces and in the city of Chongqing, hundreds of miles from the epicenter. At least four of the dead there were schoolchildren.
Liu Zhao, 22, a student, said he was home in a third-floor apartment in a high-rise building in central Chongqing when the quake struck.
"Lots of people were running; the whole community was terrified," Liu said. "People were very scared, you could tell the way people were acting. All communications were cut or overloaded almost immediately with everyone busy trying to make calls."
Zhao Cunfu, a teacher at the Lirang Village Elementary School in Chongqing, said by telephone that he was sitting in his office when he suddenly felt dizzy. Stumbling into the hallway, he realized what was happening and tried to escort a crowd of first-graders out of the building.
"The children panicked," Zhao said. "They were pushing one another. They were very small. It was easy for them to get hurt."
