Please join us in prayer for the people who are suffering as a result of this massive 7.8 earthquake in central China.
My heart is breaking for the 900 high school students trapped under a building. It is night there now. How scared they must me.
BEIJING, China (CNN) — More than 7,600 people have been killed by Monday’s powerful earthquake in just one affected region of central China, the Chinese government said.
Rescuers try to help a child trapped in the rubble at Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan City.
State-run news agency Xinhua said the official toll had risen to 7,651 in Sichuan Province.
In addition, at least 48 people were killed in the northwest Gansu Province, Xinhua said.
Authorities had earlier said they believed about 10,000 people were injured in Beichuan County in the northeastern part of the province.
The Sichuan provincial disaster relief headquarters said 80 percent of the buildings collapsed in the Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County after the 7.8-magnitude quake, Xinhua reported.
Several hundred students were also feared to be buried in collapsed school buildings, the agency said.
China’s Seismological Bureau said the earthquake had affected more than half the country’s provinces and municipalities.
President George W. Bush released a statement saying the United States “stands ready to help in any way possible.”
“I am particularly saddened by the number of students and children affected by this tragedy,” Bush said.
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