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As many as 111 people were killed in a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred just before midnight on Monday in a mountainous region in northwestern China, the country’s state media reported today.
The official Xinhua News Agency, as quoted by The Associated Press, said that 100 people died in the province of Gansu and another 11 in the neighboring province of Qinghai in the quake.
More than 200 people were injured in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, said Xinhua, adding that the quake struck in Gansu’s Jishishan county, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the provincial boundary with Qinghai.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that there was damage to water and electricity lines, as well as transportation and communications infrastructure, AP reported.
The earthquake was felt in Gansu provincial capital Lanzhou which is about 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) southwest of the capital of Beijing.
According to a social media post that had images showing young people standing outside, the university students in Lanzhou rushed out of their dorms when the earthquake hit the place.
Tents, folding beds, and quilts were being sent to the disaster area, CCTV said. It quoted Chinese leader Xi Jinping calling for an all-out search and rescue effort to minimize the casualties, as per AP reports.
Following this, China’s National Commission for Disaster Prevention, reduction, and Relief and the Ministry of Emergency Management have activated a level-IV disaster relief emergency.
As the disaster area is in a high-altitude region where the weather is cold, rescue efforts are working to prevent secondary disasters caused by factors beyond the quake, Reuters reported.
Last September, at least 46 people were reported killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that shook China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, triggering landslides and shaking buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, where 21 million residents were under a COVID-19 lockdown.
China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The earthquake devastated towns, schools, and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Published: 19 Dec 2023, 06:16 AM IST
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