Quake-hit city reopens 40 pct of schools

About 40 percent of schools in an earthquake-hit southwestern Chinese city have resumed classes a week after the natural disaster rocked the area, a local education official said on Friday.

The quake in Zhaotong city halted classes at 821 schools, including 733 damaged ones, affecting nearly 348,000 students, Liu Lehua, deputy director of education department of Zhaotong, said at a press conference.

Classes have now restarted at 334 of the schools, and a further 126 are expected to resume teaching in makeshift shelters on Monday, according to Liu.

The remaining 361 schools, including 286 in the worst-hit Yiliang county, will resume classes in makeshift shelters or rented rooms only after the disaster relief headquarters lifts the quake warning, the official said.

Multiple earthquakes, measuring up to 5.7 on the Richter scale, struck Yiliang and neighboring areas in Yunnan and Guizhou on Sept. 7, killing 81 people and injuring more than 800 others.

Relief efforts are still under way. Civil affairs authorities had sent 19,380 tents, 27,045 quilts, 12,050 coats and 5,000 beds to the quake-hit regions by Thursday.