The government has announced that 207 school children died in the Qinghai earthquake and the total official death toll is now 2187, AFP reports:
The collapse of school buildings in the 6.9 magnitude quake was responsible for 35 percent of the student deaths, Xinhua news agency said in a report late Thursday, quoting a Qinghai province education bureau official.
The overall toll climbed to 2,187, with another 80 people still missing, it reported. More than 1,400 of those injured were in serious condition.
The quake struck April 14 in a remote Tibetan region of Qinghai.
The schools issue is extremely sensitive after thousands of children died in a huge May 2008 earthquake in the southwestern province of Sichuan as school buildings collapsed while neighbouring structures stood firm.The collapse of school buildings in the 6.9 magnitude quake was responsible for 35 percent of the student deaths, Xinhua news agency said in a report late Thursday, quoting a Qinghai province education bureau official.
Activists have been trying for two years to get a full public accounting of the children who died in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
