CANBERRA—Initial reports indicate no Australians have been killed or seriously injured in the earthquake which hit China yesterday, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says.
The death toll from the massive earthquake in south-west China has risen to nearly 10,000.
The quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck close to densely-populated areas of Sichuan province shortly before 2.30pm (1630 AEST) yesterday.
"Our embassy in Beijing is seeking to find out whether any Australians have been affected and stands ready to assist any Australians who may require it," a DFAT spokeswoman said.
Although there are no initial reports of Australian deaths the department is still trying to contact people.
"It's quite a remote region," the spokeswoman said.
DFAT said its posts in China reported the quake was felt across the country.
Department staff in various embassies and consulates are safe.
"All of our staff in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu are safe and accounted for," the spokeswoman said.
An Australian man living and working in China, Philip Skewes, later told ABC Radio he had felt two aftershocks in Chengdu since the quake.
"Around 4am (0600 AEST) and then 4.10am there were some aftershocks and one of the other guys from this apartment experienced one about 10 minutes before I woke up," Mr Skewes said.
He said Chengdu, a city of 10 million people, is about 40 minutes' drive from Dujiangyan City, which was 100km from the quake's epicentre in Wenchuan, and one of the worst-hit areas in Sichuan province.
Dujiangyan has a population of about 600,000 and Mr Skewes said the hospital there was this morning unable to cope with the number of quake victims.
"We know that Dujiangyan hospital is overcrowded," he said.
"And I have friends who are doctors in the hospital and they said they're now dealing with the over-capacity from Dujiangyan at the moment."
Mr Skewes said there had been no major damage to Chengdu, but the earthquake had been "fairly rough" and put everybody in a panic.
"There's nothing really that's fallen down in this city, there's been some reports that (one) street had some buildings collapse, otherwise there's been things like rubble falling off buildings, tiles that sort of thing.
"My apartment's got concrete broken off the ceiling .. but nothing ... structural."
He said as rain started to fall in the city this morning, people had returned inside their apartments, after staying outside all night.
"It looks a lot calmer outside now but basically the city was awake all night with people sleeping out in the streets."
He said he still had internet connection and had been reading international news reports of the quake's destruction.
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