London Out Loud - China Earthquake

The earthquake, the biggest that has struck China in the last 30 years, has also left more than 245,000 injured people in its wake, the BBC has said in its latest report.

The quake has passed, but experts say China will still feel its impact for at least one month. According to Xinhua, 159 aftershocks measuring above 4 on the Richter scale had been detected in Sichuan province by the China Seismological Bureau as of midday Tuesday 20th May.

Following the earthquake, China received a total of 6 billion yuan (£440m) in donations both from governments and organisations in China and abroad in the first five days, the BBC has reported.

As of Saturday May 17th, United States had contributed with $500,000 (around £255,390), while Saudi Arabia had given $50m (around £25,539,000) and $10m (£5,107,800) worth of basic supplies, according to the website of the Chinese Foreign Affairs Department.

Official data also state that Japan´s aid to the victims of the earthquake amounts to 500m Japanese yen (around £2,438,325), while the United Nations Children’s Fund has given $300,000 (£153,234).

Finally, the British government pledged a donation of £1m, a sum that will go to the Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund of the China Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO), according to a BBC report.

As China lives three days of mourning for those caught by the earthquake, domestic and international donations to the affected areas have reached the 14 billion yuan (around £ 1.02 billion), Xinhua said last Tuesday noon.

Both the Chinese Embassy in the UK and the Red Cross Society of China have opened bank accounts to receive individual donations.

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Nightmarish quake kills more than 40,000 Chinese