Hundreds of people were being treated in makeshift hospitals and thousands were sleeping in tents yesterday in East China's Jiangxi Province after Saturday's earthquake which killed at least 15.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said yesterday that seven teams have been dispatched to the worst-hit areas with food, water and tents for the thousands of the affected while supplies were also being rushed from neighbouring Anhui and Hubei provinces which also felt tremors.

The epicentre of the earthquake was in the region between Jiujiang, a well-known summer resort on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Ruichang, both in Jiangxi Province, at 8:49 am on Saturday, the China National Seismic Observation Network said.

The ministry said as of 2 pm yesterday, the quake had left at least 16 people dead and more than 8,000 injured, 20 of them in critical condition, in Jiangxi and neighbouring provinces. Several aftershocks were reported.

In Jiangxi and over 600,000 residents have been moved to safety. About 150,000 houses were destroyed.

In neighbouring Hubei Province, one was killed; and of the 87 injured, 78 were students. More than 7,500 were evacuated to safety.

In Anhui Province, 32 houses were destroyed and there was no report of casualties.

In Jiujiang, thousands of people were seen crowding city streets, rattled by a series of aftershocks and fearing another strong quake. Some wrapped themselves in blankets temperatures range between 10 C and 20 C.

The city authorities sent inspection teams to mark out unsafe homes.

The famous Lushan Mountain resort, which was about 30 kilometres away from the epicentre, was unscathed, according to a Xinhua report.

In and around Ruichang, a total of 420,000 people had left their homes, according to Xinhua. "Almost everyone in Ruichang is out on the streets," said a civil affairs official surnamed Liu.

The provincial earthquake forecast centre said no major quake was expected but warned that there could be many aftershocks. The last destructive earthquake to hit the regions was in Jiujiang in 1911.

(HK Edition 11/28/2005 page1)