More than 400 people trapped by a strong earthquake in the foothills of the Himalayas have been rescued, Chinese officials said, while more than 30,000 residents have been relocated, as the search for survivors entered a second day yesterday.
The epicenter of Tuesday’s magnitude 6.8 quake, one of the region’s most powerful tremors over the past few years, was in Tingri County in China’s Tibet region, about 80km north of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. It also shook buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India.
Twenty-four hours after the temblor struck, survivors trapped under rubble would have endured a night in sub-zero temperatures, and be at risk of succumbing to hypothermia and dehydration.
Photo: Xinhua via AP
An initial survey showed 3,609 homes had been destroyed in the Shigatse region of Tibet, which is home to 800,000 people, Chinese state media reported late on Tuesday, citing local officials.
More than 500 people and 106 ambulances had been dispatched to help the injured.
At least 126 people were known to have been killed and 188 injured on the Tibetan side, China’s state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
No deaths have been reported in Nepal or elsewhere.
Temperatures in the high-altitude region dropped to as low as minus-18°C overnight, adding to the misery of those left homeless.
Tents, food rations, electrical generators and other supplies had reached the site by late on Tuesday, and all sections of road damaged by the temblor had been reopened, CCTV added.
Southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India are often hit by earthquakes caused by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
More than 500 aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 4.4 had followed the quake as of 8am local time yesterday, the China Earthquake Networks Center said.
Over the past five years, there have been 29 earthquakes with magnitudes of 3 or above within 200km of the epicenter of Tuesday’s temblor, according to Sichuan Province’s earthquake bureau.
In 2008, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hit Sichuan’s Chengdu, claiming the lives of at least 70,000 people, the deadliest quake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan quake that killed at least 242,000 people.
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