World Vision China is on standby to deploy relief staff after a massive quake killed more than 8,500 in the southwestern province of Sichuan and buried some 900 pupils in a school.

Relief staff with World Vision attempted to contact local authorities to establish the scale of the disaster but telecommunications systems were down.

Victor Kan, World Vision China’s relief director, who is based in Hong Kong, said: "I felt the buildings shake here."  Hong Kong is 1,300 kilometers away.

Tremors were also felt in Beijing and as far away as Bangkok, Thailand.

Agency workers tried to contact one of World Vision’s field offices in Qingchuan county, 250 kms from the epicenter near Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital.

In the nearby town of Dujiangyan there were desperate attempts to dig through the rubble of a collapsed school that buried some 900 students.

World Vision China is experienced at responding to disasters having provided aid to survivors of the harsh February 2008 winter blizzard that swept across the nation, as well as to the 7.3 magnitude quake that struck Xinjiang in northwestern China.