Over 12,000 people have died in China following the country’s worst earthquake in three decades. Officials fear the death toll will dramatically increase. The massive earthquake in the Sichuan province flattened schools, shops and homes across the region. At least two large schools collapsed, killing or trapping over 1,900 students. In the town of Hangwang, several thousand people were killed or buried when a major factory collapsed. Up to 6,000 workers were inside the factory at the time of the earthquake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. China has sent tens of thousands of troops into the region to help with the rescue effort. The earthquake comes just months before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. One survivor said almost all of the buildings in her neighborhood had collapsed.

Earthquake Survivor: “I was living at the second floor. The building did not collapse, but a lot of things fell over and hit me, and later almost all the buildings near us collapsed. My family is OK, except me.”

The earthquake was China’s deadliest since 1976, when 240,000 people were killed in the city of Tangshan, near Beijing.