China quake death toll rises to 94

BEIJING -- Rescuers with shovels and sniffer dogs chipped away at collapsed hillsides yesterday as the death toll rose to 94 from a strong earthquake in a farming region of northwest China.

Just one person was listed as missing and 1,001 as injured in Monday's quake near the city of Dingxi in Gansu province.

About 123,000 people were affected by the quake, with 31,600 moved to temporary shelters, the provincial earthquake administration said on its website. Almost 2,000 homes were destroyed, and about 22,500 damaged, the administration said.

Hundreds of paramilitary People's Armed Police fanned out to search for victims in the region of terraced farmland where the quake struck about 760 miles west of Beijing. Min county in Dingxi's rural south accounted for almost all the deaths and the worst damage.

-- AP