China quake kills at least 107

By Lindsay Beck and Guo Shipeng

BEIJING (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake in southwest China killed at least 107 people on Monday and buried 900 teenagers in a collapsed school as the tremor caused buildings to fall and left whole areas cut off.

The death toll was expected to rise sharply as authorities and rescue teams make contact with the worst-hit areas of Sichuan province, where roads and phone lines have been cut off since the 7.8 magnitude quake struck.

The 900 students were buried in the rubble of a collapsed three-storey school building in the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan.

Rescuers were trying to retrieve survivors but details were still sketchy.

The 107 casualties occurred in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan as well as Chongqing, a municipality of 30 million people that neighbours Sichuan, state media said.

The quake's epicentre was in the nearby Sichuan county of Wenchuan and its force caused buildings to sway across China and as far away as the Thai capital Bangkok.

Four more children died in a separate school collapse in Lirang township of Chongqing.

Another 10 died and 14 were seriously injured in the northwestern province of Gansu, Xinhua news agency's online edition said.