At least 258 people were killed and morethan 1,000 injured today when an earthquake measuring 6.8 on theRichter scale ripped through a remote area in northwest China,flattening hundreds of buildings, including schools.
More than 1,000 people were injured and about 1,000 homesand schools collapsed in Bachu county in the most deadlyearthquake in the predominantly Muslim region since 1949,the official Xinhua news agency said.
The earthquake in the dry western desert region of China bordering Central Asian states happened at 10.03 a.m. local time.
The earthquake's epicentre was in the sparsely populated Jiashi region, but Bachu county which is to the east and has some 370,000 residents was badly affected.
Many of the victims were students at a school that collapsed. The earthquake also levelled a one-storey clinic.
Officials in the provincial capital Urumqi and Bachu county have started sending grain, milk and blankets to the region, where temperatures are only a few degrees above freezing.