A powerful earthquake has killed at least 400 people and injured 8,000 in a remote part of western China. A series of tremors and aftershocks brought down brick and wooden houses in Yushu, Qinghai province, on the rugged Tibetan Plateau.
Troops have been sent to the mountainous area to lead a search for victims buried under rubble. It is feared many people could be without shelter in the near-freezing temperatures.
"Certainly there have been people hurt. Rescuers are trying to pull them out," one resident told reporters. "A lot of one-storey houses have collapsed. Taller buildings have held up, but there are big cracks in them."
An official said: "The injured are everywhere in the street, a lot of people are bleeding from head wounds." He added that than 85 percent of houses had collapsed in the town of Jiegu, located near the quake's epicentre.
The magnitude 6.9 quake was centred in the mountains that divide Qinghai province from the Tibet Autonomous Region. (Sky News)
