China earthquake: More than 126 killed, rescuers respond amid freezing temperatures

Rescuers in China were battling sub-zero temperatures amid the rubble of damaged buildings after an earthquake killed at least 126 people and injured hundreds in remote villages in the country’s mountainous northwest.

The 6.2-magnitude tremor that struck Jishishan county in Gansu province on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau just before midnight on Monday was the deadliest China has seen in almost a decade.

At least 113 people died and more than 500 were injured in Gansu province, and a further 13 died and 183 were injured in neighbouring Qinghai province. A massive rescue effort saw thousands of emergency workers arrive in the affected area within hours but their work was complicated by unusually cold weather, with temperatures as low as -16 degrees Celsius.

The 72 hours after an earthquake are when survivors are most likely to be rescued, but the severe cold may have curtailed that window by exposing victims to higher risk. Water, power and telecommunications infrastructure were damaged by the quake, but nearly 90 per cent of the electricity supply had been restored within 12 hours.

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The tremors were felt more than 100km away and although the earthquake affected the densely populated county centre of Jishishan, as well as rural areas, the casualties were greatest in the most remote villages. Yu Ruofei, who heads the Gansu division of Blue Sky Rescue, China’s biggest humanitarian NGO, said the damage to houses in rural areas was more serious.

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“It’s very different when an earthquake happens in a rural area compared with that in a city. Most houses in a city are reinforced concrete structures, which can stand on the ground for some time when an earthquake happens. In a rural area, however, most houses are made of earth and wood, which could fall quickly during an earthquake. Such circumstances require faster search and rescue, in just a couple of hours,” he told state-backed broadcaster CGTN.

President Xi Jinping called for an urgent search and rescue effort and the People’s Liberation Army were working with local authorities to support the emergency response. The authorities allocated Rmb200 million (€26 million) in emergency funds to Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

Thousands of tents, camp beds and coats were sent to the affected areas as medical staff described how they treated the injured in makeshift beds on the roadside. Local officials recommended sending halal food because the region is ethnically diverse, where many residents are Muslims.

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The earthquake was China’s deadliest since 2014, when more than 600 people died after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck Ludian County in the southwestern province of Yunnan. This week’s earthquake took place in an area sitting on a seismic belt lying between two tectonic plates and running from northern China to the southwest.

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Large earthquakes have been relatively frequent along the seismic belt as the tectonic plates push against one another. An 8.0 magnitude quake in Sichuan province in the southwest of China in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people and left nearly 18,000 missing.