Special report: Strong Earthquake Jolts SW China     

    BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) issued an urgent circular on Tuesday telling its local branches to ensure production safety in earthquake-stricken areas and prevent serious industrial accidents.

    A 7.8-magnitude quake rocked Wenchuan County, 159 kilometers northwest of the Sichuan provincial capital city of Chengdu, at 2:28 p.m. on Monday. The death toll from the quake had climbed to 9,219 as of Tuesday morning in eight affected localities: Sichuan,Gansu, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou, Hubei and Chongqing.

    "Enterprises that have been affected by the quake should immediately stop production and evacuate their staff safely," said the circular. It said that production shouldn't resume before the disaster conditions had been relieved.

    SAWS convened an urgent work meeting on Monday evening after the quake and began developing an emergency response work safety plan.

    Huang Yi, spokesman of SAWS, said on Tuesday morning in an online interview with the Chinese website www.gov.cn that the administration has ordered that proper work must be done to enforce the inspection of major danger sources, especially chemical plants, coal mines and other mines.

    "Work safety accidents must be prevented during the earthquake relief period and work should not hinder the smooth progress of relief efforts," added Huang.

    SAWS and its local branches nationwide had scheduled staff to be on duty 24 hours a day to track and deal with any possible emergency, said Huang.

    Huang added that the Sichuan branch of the administration and personnel dispatched from the SAWS headquarters had worked with the local government of Shifang City, Sichuan Province and firemen to evacuate people and try to minimize the effects of a liquid ammonia spill.

    The quake destroyed two chemical plants in Shifang, burying hundreds of people, forcing the evacuation of more than 6,000 people and leading to a leak of more than 80 tonnes of liquid ammonia.

    Toxic chemical plants in quake-hit areas should do thorough inspections to prevent leaks and assign staff to closely monitor material and product warehouses, said the circular.

    The administration ordered local offices to take specific measures to deal with the damage caused by the quake to power supply systems, coal mines and other mines and to prevent accidents, especially gas explosions.

    SAWS told local agencies to check work safety conditions at coal mines on an individual basis.

    "Mines that cannot meet production safety requirements should stop operations to improve work safety situations. Those that still cannot meet the standards should be shut down immediately," stipulated the circular.

    The quake was the worst in China since the Tangshan earthquake in the northern Hebei Province in 1976, which claimed 242,000 lives.