Thousands Out in Cold After China Quake

Scrambling to head off frostbite, Chinese aid workers rushed winter overcoats, quilts and tents Sunday to tens of thousands of earthquake victims in northern China cast into the bitter cold when their houses were reduced to rubble.

The devastation from Saturday’s quake in Hebei province was worse than originally thought, with about 11,440 people injured--more than five times as many as previous estimates, the New China News Agency reported. About 1,200 of the injured were seriously hurt.

The death toll from the temblor that rocked scores of villages in two counties near a section of the Great Wall was lowered from 48 to 47, said Tan Xianfeng, an official at the State Seismological Bureau.

The magnitude-6.2 quake struck when many people were indoors preparing lunch, and rattled apartment buildings in Beijing, more than 140 miles southeast of the epicenter.

A doctor in the city of Zhangbei, near the epicenter, said people were hit by falling debris, scalded by stoves and burned in fires.

Tens of thousands of buildings fell across Zhangbei and Shangyi counties, north of a section of the Great Wall that runs along the rugged terrain of the Yan Mountains. More than 44,000 people were homeless, the news agency said.

The wall, which is 2,200 years old in parts and crumbling in many areas, did not appear any worse for wear after the quake.

Aftershocks--more than 200 of them as of Sunday evening--jarred the area, with the strongest reaching magnitude 4.6, the State Seismological Bureau said.

The news agency said economic losses from the quake were estimated at $288 million.