Mother loses son, then daughter in China quakes—report

BEIJING—A Chinese mother met with double tragedy when her daughter was killed in a strong earthquake that struck southwest China over the weekend, five years after another one left her son dead, a report said.

The adult daughter of Lu Jingkang, 50, was crushed when her home collapsed in the quake that hit Sichuan province on Saturday, the Yangtze Evening Post reported on Sunday.

Lu rushed to her daughter’s apartment block when the tremor struck but was unable to reach her in time, and watched helplessly as the building collapsed, the report said.

Lu lost her son after a massive earthquake hit Sichuan in 2008 and left 90,000 people dead or missing. He was fatally injured when an aftershock from the quake caused him to crash his motorcycle, the report said.

“She wasn’t bleeding, just the same as with her brother,” Lu said, according to the report, describing how rescue workers pulled her daughter from the wreckage to find she was no longer breathing.

In the years after her son’s death, Lu’s daughter became her “only comfort”, the report said, without giving their ages.

“I only wish she was asleep when she died, so she did not suffer,” the mother said.

“God has been too cruel to me, far too cruel.”

At least 188 people were killed in Saturday’s quake, while some 17,000 families have lost their homes. Rescue workers rushing to the scene have been hampered by blocked roads and landslides.