Xi urges all-out rescue efforts

Saving lives and minimizing casualties prioritized after quake hits Sichuan

President Xi Jinping called on Monday for all-out efforts to rescue people affected by the magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Luding county in southwestern China's Sichuan province, and he emphasized that saving lives and minimizing casualties should be the primary task.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in an instruction shortly after the earthquake occurred.

The temblor jolted the county, which is in the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, at 12:52 pm on Monday.