A powerful earthquake hit China's Sichuan province on Monday afternoon. Almost 8,700 people are reported dead with every indication that the death toll will rise. The after shocks of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake were felt as far as Beijing and the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

A resident of Chongqing, Wu Ying was stated as saying: "I was so scared, the room I was staying in was shaking."

Communications were disrupted with only a trickle of news coming into Sichuan's capital, Chengdu.

However, reports have suggested that the devastation could be widespread. Houses and buildings have collapsed, trapping hundreds of people. School buildings caved in killing scores of children and communication lines have broken down with most mobile phone towers having collapsed.

The 44 aftershocks that followed saw buildings sway even in Beijing more than 2,000 km away. Tremors were also reported from 10 other provinces including Ningxia, Qiinghai, Gansu and even Tibet, although no reports of casualties have come in.