BEIJING.- A strong earthquake hit a mountainous area in northwest China, authorities said Tuesday. The earthquake destroyed homes, left residents outdoors on a winter night with subzero temperatures and killed 126 people, the deadliest earthquake in the country in nine years.
The 6.2 magnitude earthquake occurred just before midnight on Monday and injured more than 700 people, in addition to damaging homes and roads and bringing down power and communications cables in the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai, according to Chinese authorities and media. .
As emergency crews searched for the missing in collapsed buildings and at least one landslide, people who had lost their homes prepared to spend a cold winter night in tents at hastily prepared evacuation points.
“I feel anxious, what other feelings can there be?” said Ma Dongdong, who explained in a telephone interview that three bedrooms in his house had been destroyed and part of his milk tea shop had been exposed.
He had not dared to return home for fear of aftershocks, and spent the night in a field with his wife, two children and some neighbors, with a bonfire to keep warm. At mid-morning they went to a tent camp that Ma said housed about 700 people. By mid-afternoon they were waiting for blankets and warm clothing to arrive.
The China Earthquake Network Center placed the epicenter at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) in Gansu’s Jishishan county, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the province’s border with Qinghai. The United States Geological Survey put the magnitude at 5.9.
Emergency officials in Gansu province requested 300 additional workers to search collapsed buildings and other search and rescue efforts. Authorities in neighboring Qinghai reported 20 missing in a landslide, according to Chinese state media.
State television CCTV reported 113 confirmed deaths and 536 injuries in Gansu. Another 13 people died and 182 were injured in Qinghai, in an area north of the epicenter, a local Communist Party official said at a press conference.
As of 10 a.m., about 10 hours after the earthquake, nine aftershocks had occurred, the largest of which had a magnitude of 4.1, a Gansu official reported.
Emergency officials in Gansú requested 300 additional workers for search and rescue efforts. Authorities in neighboring Qinghai reported 20 missing in a landslide, according to Chinese state media.
The tremor was felt across much of the surrounding area, including Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province, located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the epicenter. Photos and videos posted by a Lanzhou University student showed students rushing out of a dormitory building and standing outside wearing long jackets over their pajamas.
“The earthquake was very intense,” commented Wang Xi, the student who published the images. “My legs felt weak, especially when we ran down the stairs to the bedrooms.”
It was the highest death toll in the country since an earthquake in August 2014 that killed 617 people in the southwestern province of Yunnan. The deadliest earthquake in recent Chinese history was a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in 2008 that left 90,000 people dead or presumed dead in Sichuan. The quake devastated towns, schools and rural communities located on the outskirts of Chengdu, beginning a multi-year effort to rebuild the area with more resistant materials.
The new earthquake shook Jishishan county in Gansu province, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the provincial border with Qinghai. The epicenter was about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) southwest of Beijing.
Muslim-majority ethnic groups live in the remote, mountainous region and the area is close to some Tibetan populations. Although geographically it is in the center of China, it is commonly known as the northwest, as it is located at the northwestern edge of China’s most populated plains.
Tents, folding beds and duvets were being sent to the disaster area, according to CCTV. The state broadcaster indicated that Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all possible search and rescue efforts to be made to minimize the number of victims.
The minimum temperature in the area overnight ranged from -15 to -9 degrees Celsius (5 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit), the China Meteorological Administration said.
Source: With information from AP/EUROPA PRESS
