An overnight earthquake killed at least 118 people in a cold and mountainous region in northwestern China, the country’s state media reported Tuesday.
Earthquakes are not uncommon in China. In August, a shallow 5.4-magnitude tremor struck the eastern part of the country, injuring 23 people and collapsing dozens of buildings.
The magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck near the boundary between the two provinces at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (six miles) just before midnight on Monday, the China Earthquake Networks Center said. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the magnitude at 5.9.By mid-morning, 105 people had been confirmed dead in Gansu and another 397 injured, including 16 in critical condition, Han Shujun, a spokesperson for the provincial emergency management department, said at a news conference.
Thirteen others were killed and 182 injured in Qinghai in an area north of the epicenter, according to state media. Another 20 were missing in Qinghai after being buried in a landslide, the China News Service said.The earthquake was felt in much of the surrounding area, including Lanzhou, the Gansu provincial capital, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the epicenter. Photos and videos posted by a student at Lanzhou University showed students hastily leaving a dormitory building and standing outside with long down jackets over their pajamas.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “all-out efforts” as search and rescue work got under way early Tuesday.
“The earthquake was too intense,” said Wang Xi, the student who posted the images. “My legs went weak, especially when we ran downstairs from the dormitory.”
At least 4,000 firefighters, soldiers and police officers were dispatched in the rescue effort, and the People’s Liberation Army Western Theatre set up a command post to direct its work.
A video posted by the Ministry of Emergency Management showed emergency workers in orange uniforms using rods to try to move heavy pieces of what looked like concrete debris at night. Other nighttime videos distributed by state media showed workers lifting out a victim and helping a slightly stumbling person to walk in an area covered with light snow.
Middle school student Ma Shijun ran out of his dormitory barefoot without even putting on a coat, according to a Xinhua report. It said the strong tremors left his hands a bit numb, and that teachers quickly organized the students on the playground.
CCTV reported that there was damage to water and electricity lines, as well as transportation and communications infrastructure.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated in Gansu, officials said.
China’s western hinterland carries the scars of frequent seismic activity, and a huge quake in Sichuan province in 2008 left more than 87,000 people dead or missing, including 5,335 schoolchildren.
A quake measured at magnitude 5.2 by USGS was detected further northwest in the Xinjiang region on Tuesday morning.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his “deep” condolences over the quake to his Chinese counterpart Xi.
China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The tremor devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
State media reported that power and water supplies were disrupted in villages around the epicentre but that some electricity had later been restored.
Dozens of smaller aftershocks followed, and officials warned that tremors with a magnitude of more than 5.0 were possible in the next few days.
The US Geological Survey said Monday night’s magnitude-5.9 quake struck at a shallow depth at 11:59 pm local time (1559 GMT) with an epicentre around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Gansu’s provincial capital, Lanzhou.