China earthquake: Death toll crosses 130, rescuers brave freezing cold to find survivors

The death toll after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit a remote and mountainous county in northwest China has risen to 131 as Chinese rescuers in the region braving sub-zero conditions continued to find and treat survivors, on Wednesday (Dec 20). 

The quake, which happened one minute before midnight on Monday, came as temperatures across northern China plunged. Most cities across China have been witnessing a cold snap for days now, but on Wednesday temperatures hit record low prompting officials to issue an alert for extreme cold. 

The earthquake is said to be one of China’s deadliest since 2014 when more than 600 people were killed in southwestern Yunnan province.

At least 113 people have been found dead in northwestern China’s Gansu province as of 9:00 am (local time) on Wednesday, and 18 were said to be killed in neighbouring Qinghai after a shallow tremor on Monday night, reported the state broadcaster CCTV. 

According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, nearly 1,000 people were injured due to the earthquake which jolted Jishishan county near the border straddling Gansu and Qinghai provinces. CCTV reported that 78 people have been rescued in Gansu. 

 

In Gansu, more than 207,000 homes were damaged and nearly 15,000 houses collapsed affecting around 145,000 people. 

The area within 50 kilometres of the epicentre in the neighbouring Qinghai province, including 22 towns and villages have been affected due to the earthquake. 

However, two villages have sustained the most damage, reported Reuters. In the neighbouring provinces’s Minhe county around 20 people were missing after a mudslide swept through half-burying many buildings in brown silt.

Thousands of emergency responders deployed in the region after the earthquake raced against time to look for survivors and resettle them. 

Chinese media citing researchers said that people trapped under rubble exposed to minus 10 degrees Celsius conditions could suffer from hypothermia and could only stay alive for between five and 10 hours if uninjured. 

A 21-year-old survivor named Du Haiyi in Qinghai’s quake-hit Haidong told Reuters that his family home had been completely levelled but he managed to save his mother and 16-year-old sister, who were trapped under debris the night of the quake. 

“My parents were pulled out from underneath this, but I don’t know how,” said Du, adding that they “ran to wherever we could.”

The earthquake in Gansu prompted frightened residents out of their homes and onto the streets in the cold. Groups of survivors reportedly spent a freezing Tuesday night huddled around outdoor fires.

More than 128,000 emergency supply items including tents, quilts, tent lights and folding beds were supplied to victims in Gansu as well as food such as steamed buns and instant noodles.

China’s weather office, early Wednesday, said subzero temperatures smashed records at five stations which include provinces and regions of Shanxi, Hebei and Inner Mongolia. 

The temperature in Shanxi’s city of Datong dropped to minus 33.2 degrees Celsius and minus 27 degrees Celsius in the nearby county of Yangqu.

“Notably, the records for all-time low temperatures (in those areas) had already been broken on December 17,” the Chinese national weather office said in a post on social media. 

The temperatures also plunged to record lows in Qingshuihe, Inner Mongolia (minus 29.7 degrees Celsius); Baoding, Hebei (minus 23.3 degrees Celsius); and Shunping, Hebei (minus 22 degrees Celsius). 

Freezing temperatures were not the only concern of the rescue workers as Reuters citing Gansu Provincial Seismological Bureau, strong aftershocks of magnitude five were still possible around the area in the coming days. 

The findings were said to be based on a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of the Monday quake, historical seismic activity and other factors.

(With inputs from agencies)