Major China quake

Beijing - A 7.8-magnitude earthquake felt as far away as Bangkok killed more than 700 people and buried thousands in Sichuan province of southwest China. Authorities said they feared 5,000 or more were dead. and Chinese President Hu Jintao ordered "all-out" efforts to help 900 school children buried in rubble.

At least four teenagers were confirmed dead after the earthquake caused school buildings to collapse and bury nearly 900 students at the Juyuan Middle School in Sichuan's Dujiangyan city, about 100 kilometres from the epicentre of the earthquake, the official Xinhua news agency quoted local officials as saying.

Official Xinhua news agency quoted officials from the Sichuan provincial disaster relief headquarters as saying that 80 per cent of buildings in Beichuan had collapsed after the earthquake.

It said officials also estimated that about 10,000 people were injured in Beichuan, which is about 100 kilometres from the epicentre of the earthquake.

The earthquake also affected Sichuan's capital, Chengdu, and nearby Chongqing.

At least 45 people died in Chengdu, where officials suspended rail and air services, the provincial government said.

More than 600 people were injured, 58 of them critically, state media quoted the provincial seismological bureau as saying.

Government and local officials said the quake struck at 2:28pm local time (1:28pm in Thailand) in Wenchuan county, Sichuan province. It was felt in cities hundreds of kilometres away, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, in addition to Bangkok.

"Major tremors" were felt by residents of cities closer to the epicentre, including Sichuan's capital, Chengdu, and nearby Chongqing, the official news agency Xinhua said.

The first reports of casualties came from Chongqing's Liangping county, where four children died and more than 100 were injured at two primary schools which collapsed during the earthquake, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The epicentre was about 95 kilometres west-northwest of Chengdu in Wenchuan county, which has a population of 112,000.

Initial reports put the magnitude at 7.6 but the State Seismological Bureau later upgraded it to 7.8, while an official at the Beijing Seisomological Bureau said it was measured at 8.0.

Premier Wen Jiabao was travelling to Sichuan to supervise relief work, while President Hu Jintao issued a statement urging "all-out efforts to help those affected" by the quake.

The People's Liberation Army dispatched troops from Chengdu to help in relief work and damage assessment in Wenchuan county.

Xinhua quoted a worker in Chongqing as saying his factory was evacuated after the roof began to crack, and a resident of Sichuan's Leshan city who said a garden wall had collapsed.

Mobile telephone services were briefly cut off in Chengdu and Chongqing, while workers were evacuated from some major office towers in Shanghai, the agency said.

Flights to and from Chengdu were suspended, and a main road near Chengdu's southern railway station flooded after the quake fractured an underground water pipe, it said.

In Hong Kong, people rang emergency services in panic when the earthquake made ground shake and buildings sway in the city of 6.9 million, 1,360 kilometres south-east from Chengdu. There were no reports of injuries of damage in Hong Kong.

A tremor measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale was recorded in Beijing's eastern suburb of Tongzhou at 2:35 pm, the seismological bureau said.

Earlier Monday, an undersea earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shook Taiwan. There were no reports of damage or casualties from the quake that struck at 10:43 am (0243 GMT), 3.4 kilometres under the sea off Taiwan's eastern Orchid Island, the Seismological Observation Centre said.

Seismologists in Taiwan said the earthquake was unrelated to the one in Wenchuan. (dpa)