Slideshow: Earthquake in China

How Hwee Young / EPA

A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, killing scores of people and injuring thousands close to where a big quake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008.

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LUSHAN, China - Hundreds of survivors of a 6.6-magnitude earthquake that hit southwest China, killing nearly 200 people, pushed into traffic along a main road on Monday, waving protest signs, demanding help and shouting at police.

"We are in the open air here. No place to sleep, nothing to eat. No one is paying any attention to us," said Peng Qiong, 45, a farmer in Chaoyang village on the outskirts of Lushan, near the epicenter.

China has poured resources into Sichuan since Saturday's quake, including 1 billion yuan ($161.9 million) from central coffers for disaster relief and compensation. About 18,000 troops are in the area.

The earthquake killed at least 186 people and injured more than 11,000, state media said.

But while many have praised the government for its swift response, growing anger among some underscores the government's challenge, magnified by the fact that Sichuan bore the brunt of a 7.9 earthquake in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.

In some cases, roads closed to non-emergency traffic have been clogged with all kinds of government vehicles.

On the way to Baoxing, a heavily damaged area about 25 miles from Lushan, idling ambulances, troop transporters, construction vehicles and tour buses for relief workers blocked both lanes of the road, making access possible only on foot or by weaving motorcycles. 

Tian Kuanqian surveyed a winding fissure that split the upper level of his house. For more than two days, the 40-year-old farmer has watched as emergency vehicles passed their wrecked village by.

"If they continue to ignore us like we are trivial, we will have no choice but to protest," he said.

The back room hung of Tian's house was torn from the building and perched on a steep slope. Inside, a poster of former revolutionary leader Mao Zedong hung above a collapsed wall. Tian's family including elderly parents sleep on the ground.

"It's been three days and we haven't seen noodles or water. What we need are tents," Tian said.

A police officer in Chaoyang trying to calm protesters on the road said the authorities were doing all they could.

"Our leaders have visited and we're working getting these people food and water," said the officer, who declined to give his name.

Mountainous terrain and poor infrastructure have made reaching victims difficult. The Xinhua news agency said aftershocks had triggered landslides that blocked a main road.

In Zhongba village, part of Baoxing, residents said it took two days for help to arrive. When it did, supplies and tents were in short supply. Almost all buildings are damaged and many have collapsed.

Zhang Zhenghua, a 41-year-old farmer, said officials drove through the village on Monday and stopped briefly to apologize for the delay in help.

"The secretary mentioned subsidies to rebuild our homes. We hope they do what they say," Zhang said.  

Related:

Rescuers struggle to reach China quake zone after scores killed, thousands injured

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit western Mexico late Sunday, powerful enough to be felt 200 miles away in Mexico City but not causing any damage or injuries, according to preliminary reports.

The quake hit off the country’s western coast, according the U.S. Geological Survey. Local authorities have not indicated anyone has been hurt or and property has been damaged, Telemundo’s Mexico City Bureau reports.

Residents in Mexico City briefly ran outdoors when the shaking began, then returned to homes and businesses shortly after, a witness told Reuters.

On Saturday a deadly earthquake hit southwestern China, killing more than 200 people and leaving rescuers struggling to search for survivors.

Slideshow: Earthquake in China

Jason Lee / Reuters

A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, killing scores of people and injuring thousands close to where a big quake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008.

Launch slideshow

LUSHAN, China - Rescuers struggled to reach a remote corner of southwestern China on Sunday as the toll of the dead and missing from the country's worst earthquake in three years climbed to 203 with more than 11,000 injured.

The 6.6 magnitude quake struck in Lushan county, near the city of Ya'an in the southwestern province of Sichuan, close to where a devastating 7.9 temblor hit in May 2008 killing some 70,000.

Most of the deaths were concentrated in Lushan, a short drive up the valley from Ya'an, but rescuers' progress was hampered by the narrowness of the road and landslides, as well as government controls restricting access to avoid traffic jams.

"The Lushan county centre is getting back to normal, but the need is still considerable in terms of shelter and materials," said Kevin Xia of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"Supplies have had difficulty getting into the region because of the traffic jams. Most of our supplies are still on the way," Xia said.

In Ya'an, relief workers from across China expressed frustration with gaining access to Lushan.

"We're in a hurry. There are people that need help and we have supplies in the back (of the car)," said one man from the Shandong Province Earthquake Emergency Response Team, who declined to give his name.

In Lushan, doctors and nurses tended to people in the open or under tents in the grounds of the main hospital, surrounded by shattered glass, plaster and concrete that fell during the quake. Water and electricity in the area were cut off by the quake.

"I was scared. I've never seen an earthquake this big before," said farmer Chen Tianxiong, 37, lying on a stretcher between tents, his family looking on.

In a tent, Zhou Lin sat tending to his wife and three-day-old son who were evacuated from a Lushan hospital soon after the quake struck on Saturday.

"I was worried the child or his mother would be hurt. The buildings were all shaking. I was extremely scared. But now I don't feel afraid any more," said Zhou, looking at his child as he slept soundly wrapped in a blanket on a makeshift bed. 

Premier Li Keqiang flew into the disaster zone by helicopter to comfort the injured and displaced, chatting to rescuers and clambering over rubble.

"Don't be sad, we will rebuild after this disaster and your new homes will be even better than before," state media quoted him as telling residents.

Xinhua news agency put the number of dead and missing at 203, with almost 11,500 injured, 960 of them seriously.

Schools withstand quake
But no schools had collapsed, unlike in 2008 when many schools crumpled causing huge public anger, prompting a nationwide campaign of re-building.

"Our schools are the safest and sturdiest buildings," Chen said. "The Chinese government has put a lot of money into building schools and hospitals. I can guarantee that no schools collapsed."

Xinhua said 6,000 troops were in the area to help with rescue efforts.

Rescuers in Lushan had pulled 91 survivors out of rubble, Xinhua said. In villages closest to the epicenter, almost all low-rise buildings had collapsed, footage on state television showed. 

The China Meteorological Association warned of the possibility of landslides in Lushan county, with more than 1,000 aftershocks registered.

Ya'an is a city of 1.5 million people and is considered one of the birthplaces of Chinese tea culture. It is also the home to one of China's main centers for protecting the giant panda.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially put the magnitude at 7, but later revised it down.

In 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed 2,700 people in Yushu, a largely Tibetan region in northwest China. 

This story was originally published on Sun Apr 21, 2013 4:00 AM EDT

QUETTA, Pakistan - Powerful aftershocks rocked the border between Iran and Pakistan Wednesday, a day after a major earthquake tore through the region, collapsing buildings and killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 170.

The Pakistani town of Mashkel was “totally destroyed,” according to a local journalist at the scene. Reporter Farooq Kabdani said almost all of the town's mud houses and shops had collapsed. He suggested the death toll could climb as about 25 people remained missing.

Tuesday’s major quake, rated at magnitude 7.8 by the U.S. Geological Survey and 7.5 by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Agency, was centered about 50 miles east of the city of Khash, Iran, but shook tall buildings as far away as New Delhi, nearly 1,500 miles away.

Fifteen seriously injured victims have evacuated to the Central Military hospital Quetta by the Pakistan Army.The victims range in age from 3 to 50 years old.

It was described by Iranian media as the worst in 50 years, but the majority of confirmed casualties appeared to be on the Pakistan side of the border.

Officials in Mashkel District in Pakistan's Balochistan province said 38 people were killed there, while 170 were injured, including 30 in critical condition.

Banaras Khan / AFP - Getty Images

Earthquake survivors stand on the rubble of their collapsed mud houses in the Mashkel area of southwest Pakistan, Wednesday.

Iran’s state-run Press TV reported one confirmed Iranian death, noting that initial reports had suggested a much higher death toll. A hospital in the Iranian city of Saravan, which is close to the epicenter, reported 10 fatalities on Tuesday. 

Washuk Khan Mohammad, the local deputy commissioner, said the Mashkel area was hit by two more aftershocks on Wednesday, which he said measured 6.5 and 4.4 on the richter scale, causing more damage.

Conditions in Mashkel, which lies south-west of Quetta, were described as “miserable” by Kabdani. The area is “totally destroyed,” he added.

While the earthquake's epicenter was in a thinly populated area, the USGS estimated that about 400,000 people live in areas where the shaking was very strong to severe; 1.7 million live in areas where it was considered strong; and another 2.6 million are in territories where it was classified as moderate.

The State Department expressed its condolences for the lives lost in the earthquake.

"The United States sends our deepest condolences for those lost in the earthquake in southeastern Iran and western Pakistan today," a statement released Tuesday read. "Our thoughts are with the families of those who were killed, those who were injured, and with those communities that have suffered damage to homes and property. We stand ready to offer assistance in this difficult time."

The Tehran Geophysics Center said the quake lasted 40 seconds and described it as the country's strongest in more than 50 years.

An April 9 earthquake near the country's only nuclear power plant killed 37 people and injured at least 850 more, leaving entire villages devastated.

Despite the scare caused by that quake, Iran pledged that it would continue to build more reactors in the heavily seismic region, which is hundreds of miles from the site of the latest temblor, on the other side of the country's south.

Iran has a history of devastating earthquakes. A magnitude-6.6 quake in 2003 killed an estimated 31,000 people, and a 7.5 in 1990 killed as many as 50,000, according to the USGS.

NBC News' Ali Arouzi contributed to this report.

Related:

What caused latest deadly earthquake in Iran?

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 17, 2013 5:50 AM EDT

EPA / Mohamad Fatemi

A woman sits on rubble in Shonbeh, Bushehr province, in southern Iran on Tuesday after a magnitude-6.3 earthquake devastated villages, killed 37 people and injured more than 900. Despite sitting on an earthquake hotbed, Iran said it would continue to build nuclear reactors.

Iran plans to build more nuclear reactors in an earthquake-prone coastal area, Iranian media said on Wednesday, a day after a strong tremor struck the region close to its only existing such plant.

Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude quake hit 55 miles southeast of the port of Bushehr, killing 37 people and injuring more than 900 as it flattened small villages. The dead included eight children under the age of 10.

But the nuclear power station 11 miles south of Bushehr was unaffected, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built the facility.

Tehran has repeatedly rejected safety concerns about Bushehr, which is located in a highly seismic area on Iran's gulf coast and began operations in 2011 after decades of delays.

The head of the Islamic state's Atomic Energy Organization said hours after the earthquake that more reactors would be built there.

EPA / Abedin Taherkenareh

The Bushehr nuclear power station is shown in 2010, a year before it opened. Iran says the reactor was not damaged in Tuesday's powerful earthquake, but its location atop a fault zone has caused concern. Nonetheless, the country says it will continue to build nuclear plants in the region.

"This earthquake had no impact on the Bushehr nuclear power plant installation," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani told state television late on Tuesday in comments published by the semi-official Mehr News Agency on Wednesday.

"Not only was the power plant not producing electricity or sending it to the grid at the time, but even while operating the Bushehr power plant has been designed to withstand earthquakes of more than 8.0 on the Richter scale," he said.

The Bushehr site is capable of holding six power reactors and construction of two more units of at least 1,000 megawatts will start in the "near future" there, he said. Iran has identified 16 sites elsewhere in the country suitable for other atomic plants.

Iran sits on major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes, including a 6.6-magnitude quake in 2003 that flattened the southeastern city of Bam and killed more than 25,000 people. In August, more than 300 people were killed when two quakes struck the country's northwest.

Dozens of aftershocks were detected in the hours following the initial quake, and a 5.2-magnitude quake struck on Wednesday with an epicenter 65 miles from Bushehr, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

About 92 villages were affected by Tuesday's quake, said Mahmoud Mozaffar, a Red Crescent official, Iran's ISNA news agency reported. About 120 people had injuries severe enough to be admitted to hospital, Iranian officials said.

About 800 homes were destroyed, said Hassan Ghadami of Iran's crisis-management organization. Many village homes are built out of mud brick, which can crumble easily.

Initial damage was estimated at $43 million, provincial official Shapour Rostami said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that Iranian authorities had made no request for international assistance. Iran's Red Crescent had sent 100 relief workers and three helicopters from neighboring provinces to the area, OCHA said.

Slideshow: Everyday life in Iran

At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

Launch slideshow

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A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Indonesia's mountainous West Papua province on Saturday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. 

The quake hit 256 km (159 miles) east of Enarotali and was 58 km (36 miles) deep, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Randy Baldwin, a USGS Geophysicist, told NBC News early Saturday that data were still being gathered on the quake. 

An Indonesian meteorological survey official said the quake struck on land and there was no danger of a tsunami off the thinly populated province, formerly called Irian Jaya, in Indonesia's far east.

The sprawling Indonesian archipelago is on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire" and gets regular earthquakes.

A magnitude 9.1 quake struck the northern Indonesian province of Aceh in 2004 triggering huge tsunami waves which killed more than 230,000 people in 13 countries around the Indian Ocean. 

- Reuters and NBC News

An earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.1 shook Taiwan on Wednesday, official agencies said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey registered the quake with a magnitude of 6.3. The epicenter of the quake was near central Taiwan at a depth of about 9 miles, said Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau, which uses the Richter scale.

Earthquakes occur frequently in Taiwan, which lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin. In September 1999, a 7.6 quake killed more than 2,400 people and destroyed or damaged 50,000 buildings.

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Oaxaca, Mexico, on Tuesday, causing buildings to sway as far away as Mexico City, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Oaxaca is about 300 miles from Mexico City, where the tremors set off earthquake alarms, The Associated Press reported.

Staff at the Hotel Palacio Borghese in Oaxaca told NBC News that the quake set off the alarms, but that they did not feel it.

There were minor aftershocks in the city of Pinotepa Nacional on the Pacific Coast, but no reported injuries, Oaxaca Governor Gabino Cue tweeted on Tuesday.

The quake’s epicenter was about 20.5 miles deep, according to the USGS.

Reuters contributed to this report.

POLKOWICE, Poland -- Nineteen miners were pulled alive and well from a copper mine in southern Poland on Wednesday after a small earthquake trapped them almost 2,000 feet below the surface late Tuesday.

It took seven hours to tunnel through collapsed rock to reach the miners, who were working at the Rudna copper mine in southern Poland when a small tremor trapped them there at 10:09 p.m. local time (5:09 p.m. ET) on Tuesday.

Agencja Gazeta / Reuters

Families react to the news Wednesday that 19 miners were rescued after a small earthquake trapped them some 2,000 feet below the surface at the Rudna copper mine in southern Poland.

Two were treated for minor injuries, while the others, shaken up and covered with grime after a grueling night, were on their way home.

Families of the miners, who gathered near the site, cheered when the mine's operator, KGHM, announced that all 19 were alive and were slowly being taken out through a hole dug by the rescuers.

"This was the biggest accident in KGHM history," chief executive Herbert Wirth told Reuters. "Never in our history has it happened that 19 miners were trapped with no contact."

The Rudna mine is about 250 miles southwest of the Polish capital, Warsaw.

Kacper Pempel / Reuters, file

KGHM Polkowice-Sieroszowice copper ore mine is seen in Polkowice in this July 29, 2011, file photo. Nineteen miners were trapped there Tuesday night after an earthquake caused a collapse. All were saved.

After the quake on Tuesday, workers on the surface lost contact for several hours with the trapped miners because communication lines into the shafts had been severed.

The mine is in the Silesia region, near Poland's borders with Germany and the Czech Republic. It has been in operation since 1974. State-controlled KGHM is Europe's second-biggest copper producer.

Poland has large numbers of mines, mostly in the heavily industrialized Silesia region. In 2006, a gas explosion at a coal mine in the region killed 23 miners.

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