In a mountainous region of northwest China, an earthquake crushed buildings as people slept inside and sent them running into a freezing night, according to officials and state media on Tuesday. The earthquake claimed at least 116 lives.

According to officials from Gansu Province, during a press briefing on Tuesday, rescuers were looking for survivors in rural Jishishan County, the epicenter of the earthquake. According to reports, the Monday night earthquake that occurred at 11:59 p.m. left 105 people dead and almost 400 injured throughout the region.

Eleven deaths were reported by the state-run Xinhua News Agency from the city of Haidong in the neighboring province of Qinghai.

The China Earthquake Administration recorded the earthquake’s magnitude as 6.2, but the United States Geological Survey reported 5.9. State media released images and footage of collapsed brick village houses with bedrooms submerged under debris. Rescuers were still extracting victims hours later, the state channel CCTV reported.

The China Quake aftermath

On Monday, 397 people had been injured and 105 confirmed deaths as of 7.50 a.m. (23:50 GMT), according to a press conference held by Gansu provincial authorities. They stated that damage to more than 5,000 houses had occurred.

Some settlements had interruptions in their water and power supplies, according to Xinhua.
As soon as they felt the earthquake, those near the epicenter hurried outside onto the street. A few structures crumbled and collapsed.

“I live on the 16th floor and felt the tremors so strongly,” the state-run Global Times reported a guy called Qin as saying. “Experiencing the earthquake was similar to being thrown up after strong waves… My family and I quickly descended all 16 flights in one breath when I woke them up.

It was minus 12 degrees Celsius (10.4 Fahrenheit), Qin continued, and some of his neighbors had wrapped themselves in blankets or put on down jackets, while others were bare-chested.

During the earthquake, state media said that the temperature in Jishishan was close to -20 degrees Celsius, or roughly -4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered “all-out efforts” in the search and relief missions as rescue operations got underway. According to official media, about 1,500 firefighters were on duty and another 1,500 were on standby. Additionally, more than 300 soldiers and commanders were called upon to provide disaster aid.

Additionally, supplies such as blankets, stoves, drinking water, and instant noodles were being transported to the impacted area.

Teams from the National Health Commission, China’s cabinet, and the State Council were sent to the scene to supervise the rescue efforts, according to CCTV. Noting that the accident occurred in a “high-altitude area with cold weather,” President Xi Jinping gave the order for workers to fix infrastructure as soon as possible.

There were several aftershocks recorded after today’s 6.2 Magnitude Quake. China announced the occurrence of a second earthquake on Tuesday at 9:46 a.m., with a magnitude of 5.5, in the Xinjiang region’s extreme west, almost 1,800 miles west of Jishishan. Casualty information was not immediately available.

China and Earthquakes

Jishishan County is mainly made up of small townships and villages, with a population of roughly 260,000, and is located in Gansu, one of the poorest provinces in China, a local official told media associated with the party.

According to Li Yong, the official, the provincial government was the local government’s only source of clothing, blankets, and shoes.

The year 2020 saw the official declaration by provincial authorities that Jishishan was no longer “poverty-stricken,” as part of a national initiative aimed at purportedly ending rural poverty by the end of that year. About 26 million people live in Gansu, which also contains a portion of the Gobi Desert.

Western provinces like Gansu, which are located on the eastern edge of the tectonically active Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, frequently experience earthquakes.
A 6.6-magnitude earthquake that struck Sichuan Province in September 2022 claimed around 100 lives.

In 2008, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 occurred in Sichuan, leaving over 87,000 people dead or missing, including 5,335 children who were in school at the time.

The greatest natural disaster in Chinese history occurred in 1976 when an earthquake devastated Tangshan, killing at least 242,000 people.

Three earthquakes measuring 6.0 or higher have occurred in China since 1900, according to state media, and they were all within 120 miles of the Monday earthquake.