At least 126 people have been killed in north-west China in the country’s deadliest earthquake in 13 years.
The 6.2 magnitude quake hit mountainous Gansu province around midnight on Monday (16:00 GMT), also shaking neighbouring Qinghai.
Fatalities may rise with over 700 reported injured in icy conditions.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered thousands of rescue crews to the region, among the poorest and most diverse in China.
On Tuesday, footage shown on state TV and social media networks showed entire villages split by the quake, as well as collapsed buildings and houses.
Residents who fled their homes were also shown huddling over makeshift fires at hastily erected evacuation camps. Temperatures hit -13C (8.7F) on Tuesday, Chinese media reported.
Survivors said the tremors had felt like “being tossed by surging waves”, and recalled rushing out of their apartments.
Local officials in Jishishan county, the worst hit in Gansu province, said more than 5,000 buildings in the area had been damaged.
Chinese media quoted a director of the Gansu rescue team, who attributed the widescale damage to poor building quality in the villages – many homes being old and made of clay.
Gansu lies between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus and borders Mongolia. The remote region is one of China’s poorest and most ethnically diverse.
The epicentre of the quake was in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, home to many Chinese Muslim groups, including the Hui, Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar people.
Chinese authorities said the quake measured 6.2 on the Richter scale, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded a magnitude of 5.9 and a depth of 10km (6 miles). About 10 aftershocks have taken place, local authorities reported.
President Xi has said, “all efforts should be made to carry out search and rescue, treat the injured in a timely manner, and minimise casualties”.
China sits in a region where a number of tectonic plates – notably the Eurasian, Indian and Pacific plates – meet and is particularly prone to earthquakes.
Last September, more than 60 people were killed when a 6.6-magnitude quake hit south-western Sichuan province.
The Gansu earthquake is the deadliest China has seen since the devastating 2010 quake in Yushu, Qinghai province, which claimed almost 2,700 lives.
(Tribune)
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