Over 100 Killed As 6.2 Magnitude Earthquake Hits China County

AN overnight earthquake struck the northwestern region of China, resulting in the death of at least 118 people, according to state media reports on Tuesday.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.2 according to the China Earthquake Networks Center and 5.9 according to the U.S. Geological Survey, occurred near the boundary between Gansu and Qinghai provinces at 11:59 pm on Monday. The shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) added to the severity of the impact.

Xinhua, a state-owned media, said the earthquake was also felt strongly in the cities of Xining and Haidong in Qinghai, where some houses collapsed and cracked.

The provincial fire and rescue department has sent 580 rescuers aided by 88 fire engines, 12 search and rescue dogs, and more than 10,000 sets of equipment to the disaster area.

But a bitter winter cold with temperatures plummeting below minus 10 degrees Celsius and the seizure of water, electricity supply, as well as mobile signals in some areas, due to the quake, has complicated rescue efforts.

The railway authority has also suspended passenger and cargo trains passing through the quake zone and ordered a safety check of railway tracks, Xinhua added.

Due to high altitudes, cold weather and complex geological conditions, the county is prone to natural disasters like earthquakes.

Since 1900, the area within a radius of 100 km from the epicentre has recorded seven earthquakes above magnitude 5.

However, Monday night’s quake is on course to be the deadliest to have hit China in nearly a decade, since an earthquake in the southwestern province of Yunnan killed around 600 people in 2014.

On Tuesday, the Chinese government allocated 200 million yuan to support disaster relief efforts in the earthquake-hit Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

Of the total, 150 million yuan will be used to support Gansu, while 50 million yuan will go to Qinghai, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management and the Ministry of Finance.

Eighteen-Eleven Media