(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-20 21:46

Many citizens in Chengdu spent a sleepless night by sitting up and getting prepared to escape or setting up tents in the open air.

Chengdu residents calmed down on Tuesday. Local people praised the government's sense of responsibility in publishing the aftershock forecast. Some, however, complained it had come "too late".

Residents of the outer districts and counties also fled home amid the quake scare.

The government of Mianyang, Sichuan, sent experts to inspect buildings and forbade people from returning to buildings that were labeled dangerous by the experts.

The quake warning also prompted panic in the neighboring Chongqing Municipality and Guizhou Province.

The majority of the residents in urban Chongqing sheltered in tents in squares, parks and public green areas on Sunday night, after the municipal government warned the aftershock would be felt clearly in Chongqing.

Chongqing resident Shen Ping and her six-month baby stayed at a local park on Monday night. "I had not planned to take such a young baby out of home at midnight, however, my families insisted."

"We do not think our houses could collapse. We are here just in case. Tomorrow we will go to work," said another resident Hu Daxue.

The panic was much worse in Guizhou, where reports of frog and toads migration also spread public fear.

In Tongzi County of Zunyi, a city in the north of Guizhou that borders Sichuan and Chongqing, some villagers said they saw massive migration of frogs and toads on Monday night, which they took as quake forecast.

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