Day 1 May 12 2008, Monday

Death Toll at end of day: 7, 651
Aftershocks: in the 3 hours after the quake, 313 aftershocks have been felt, with 7 measuring 5 on the Richter scale. By the end of the day, there were 16.


At 2.28 pm local time, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Ritcher Scale hit Sichuan province in China. The energy given off is almost 30 times more powerful than that of the atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki, Japan in World War Two. The epicentre was Wenchuan County, located in a mountainous region of Sichuan. Communication lines were cut off.

The tremors are felt as far as Bangkok, Thailand and Beijing, both almost 1500km away.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao arrives in the earthquake zone. He is photographed sifting through the remnants of a school.

Officials say, China's massive Three Gorges Dam has not been damaged by the quake. The dam is located on the country's longest river the Yangzi, in the neighbouring province of Hubei and Sandouping.

However casualties will be in the thousands.


VIDEOS OF THE DAY :

Two videos managed to captured the moment the quake hit.

A student at Sichuan University filmed this from his dormitory in the provincial capital, Chengdu, around 100 km away.




This was captured by a foreign tourist in a more rural part of the province. Those present started running. There is also a scene of an landslide happening at the end.