China police search for origin of earthquake rumor

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-02-22 14:00

BEIJING: Police in northern China hunted Monday for the origin of an earthquake rumor that prompted tens of thousands of terrified people to flee outdoors over the weekend in Shanxi.

Word that an earthquake was imminent began spreading by phone, Internet and text message through parts of Shanxi province Saturday afternoon.

City residents spent the freezing night in the streets or sleeping in their cars, while panicked rural villages used public address systems to broadcast warnings, according to The Beijing News newspaper.

Officials responded overnight, deploying radio, television and text messages to broadcast a provincial earthquake bureau bulletin telling residents not to believe or spread the earthquake rumor.

"Only the provincial government is authorized to issue earthquake forecasts. No other body or individual has that right," said the notice, posted on the bureau's Web site.

Spreading rumors in China is punishable with a fine and detention for not more than 10 days.

Shanxi government spokeswoman Wang Laying said the panic may have been prompted by a misunderstanding over earthquake survival drills being conducted by local authorities.

"People get the false impression that an earthquake will occur. Some people, especially those in rural areas, don't have a great capacity for understanding what's really going on," Wang said.

However, the The Beijing News quoted a provincial earthquake bureau official as saying no such drills had been conducted, and police investigations were continuing.

Shanxi was among the regions affected by a cataclysmic earthquake in 1556 that killed an estimated 830,000 people. China's worst earthquake in recent years struck the southwestern province of Sichuan on May 12, 2008, leaving 90,000 people dead or missing and another 5 million homeless.