A strong earthquake hit a remote and largely rural area in southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, which killed at least 156 and injuring about 5,500 people, Reuters reported state media on Saturday. The earthquake, the worst in China in three years, happened in Lushan county near Ya'An city whose epicenter had a depth of 12 km, or 7.5 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The earthquake was felt in neighboring provinces and the provincial capital of Chengdu, news reports said.
President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang said all efforts must be put into rescuing victims.
"The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the earthquake's occurrence, the golden time for saving lives," Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying earlier.
Xinhua said 6,000 troops were heading to the area to help with rescue efforts. State television CCTV said only emergency vehicles were being allowed into Ya'an, though Chengdu airport had reopened, news reports said.
Most of the deaths were concentrated in Lushan, where water and electricity were cut off. Pictures on Chinese news sites showed toppled buildings and people in bloodied bandages being treated in tents outside the hospital, which appeared only lightly damaged.
Ya'an is a city of 1.5 million people, known as one of the birthplaces of Chinese teach culture, and home to one of the main centers for protecting the great panda, Reuters said.
Aftershocks also hit the area, the largest of which was a magnitude of 5.1, according to Reuters.
The last big earthquake was a magnitude of 7.9 in May, 2008.
