NEARLY 900 children in Dujiangyan City in Sichuan Province, about 100 kilometers from the provincial capital of Chengdu, were buried under debris after a three-story high school building collapsed.

By 8 p.m., more than 50 had been confirmed dead at Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Township.

Some buried teenagers were struggling to make their way out of the rubble while others were heard crying for help.

Worried parents watched as five cranes excavated the site and an ambulance waited nearby.

A tearful mother said her son, Zhang Chengwei, was buried under the debris.

Two girls said they escaped because they had "run faster than others."

"It was around 2:30 p.m. and the building suddenly began to rock back and forth," one of them recalled.

A villager said the school had 18 classes, with about 50 students in each class.

"We ran out of the house when the quake hit," said Gao Shangyuan, a villager who was helping with the rescue work.

Gao and other villagers helped dozens of students out of the rubble.

"Some had jumped out of the window and a few others ran down the stairs that did not collapse."

(Xinhua)