Society

Rumors lead to earthquake panic in Shanxi

By Wang Qian in Beijing and Sun Ruisheng in Taiyuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-22 07:19

Tens of thousands of people grabbed prized possessions and fled their houses in the middle of the night following rumors of an imminent earthquake in Shanxi province yesterday.

Rumors lead to earthquake panic in Shanxi

The rumor - which is believed to have started after a series of earthquake drills at local hospitals - warned that a destructive 6.0 magnitude quake would strike in the cities of Jinzhong, Changzhi, Jincheng and Taiyuan, the provincial capital.

The rumor triggered widespread panic and prompted tens of thousands of people in dozens of cities and counties to leave their houses and run into the streets in the middle of the night.

The chaos forced officials at the Shanxi provincial earthquake administration to officially deny the rumor on its website yesterday. Officials called for calm and warned that only the provincial government could release an earthquake forecast.

Lang Xiaojing, a resident in Taiyuan, said she was very frightened when she first heard the rumor.

"I received two phone calls from my friends at about 4 am and was told that the earthquake would happen at about 6 am. Then I saw many people and cars were moving out into the streets," she said.

Lang said she woke her husband and son, removed 20,000 yuan ($2,900) that she had stored in a bedside table, called her brother and then fled the house.

When they emerged from the property, hundreds of residents were already outside discussing the rumor of the imminent earthquake.

Later, residents received a text message from the provincial government that denied the rumor and encouraged residents to return to their houses.

According to local media reports, the rumor began after earthquake emergency drills were conducted in local hospitals between Jan 6-13 this year.

Shanxi Youth Daily reported that a text message circulated among residents in January saying: "Recently hospitals have been busy with earthquake drills and storing supplies of medicines. This shows that a strong earthquake seems likely to happen. Please prepare for the coming quake and avoid staying in buildings."

The newspaper reported that this message was later modified to say that an earthquake warning was listed on the official website of the provincial earthquake administration and was predicted to be 6.0 in magnitude.

As rumors about the earthquake grew, more people panicked and tried to warn their friends and relatives.

The People's Daily Online reported that people used loudspeakers to wake their neighbors in some villages. Locals were told that they should get out of bed and leave their houses to avoid injury in the earthquake. Many moved their household appliances out of the house.

This is not the first time that the provincial earthquake administration has denied the quake rumors.

On Jan 22, officials at the provincial and city earthquake administrations said experts believed there would be no destructive earthquakes in Shanxi in the near future.

However, two days later, the China Earthquake Administration detected a 4.8 magnitude- earthquake in the province's Yuncheng county, which caused damage to hundreds of houses.