48 Killed, 2,000 Hurt by 6.2 Earthquake in China

Medical workers and troops carried blankets and relief supplies Saturday to a rural area north of the Chinese capital hit by a powerful earthquake that officials said killed 48 people and injured 2,000, state television and radio reported.

Tremors from the magnitude 6.2 quake reached Beijing, more than 140 miles southeast of the epicenter.

Tall office and apartment buildings in Beijing swayed, but no major damage was reported.

Government officials said most of the deaths occurred in Zhangbei County in northern Hebei province. Extensive damage was also reported in neighboring Shangyi County, where the largest settlement is the garrison city of Zhangjiakou.

More than 100 aftershocks jolted the surrounding territory of Hebei province, one of the country’s most earthquake-prone areas and site of the devastating 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, 100 miles east of Beijing, which was China’s worst quake this century, with a magnitude of 7.8.

Unlike after the devastating 1976 quake, in which at least 240,000 people were killed, the official government news media were quick to announce both the occurrence of Saturday’s quake and the extent of the damage.

In 1976, when China was still in the throes of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the government made no public announcement of the disaster, although refugees from the quake spilled into the capital.

On Saturday, government television showed survivors huddling under quilts in tents erected by rescue workers in villages near the Great Wall.

In addition to reports on the regular news, evening programs were interrupted with updates on the earthquake, as well as with reassurances to the Beijing population that it was not in danger.

The initial concern of officials was to protect survivors from the cold, which overnight plunged to 4 degrees below zero.

The official New China News Agency said 10,000 people in Shangyi County, which has a population of 190,000, were made homeless, although a local official said all the victims were being sheltered. Zhangbei County has a population of 360,000.

“The biggest problem is that there are 20,000 homeless farmers with no place to go,” said Ge Zhizhou, deputy director of the State Seismological Bureau. “Around me, about 80% of the homes have collapsed.”

President Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Li Peng reportedly telephoned Hebei government officials to express “great concern” and to send condolences to the bereaved.

The quake struck at 11:50 a.m., when most people were inside their homes preparing lunch.