Severe quake shakes China
Another earthquake strikes northwest China. Numerous people run out of their homes in panic in the middle of the night and are now waiting outside in the freezing cold. For more than 100 people, all help comes too late. And the number of victims is likely to rise.
At least 116 people have died in a severe earthquake in northwest China. According to the state news agency Xinhua, more than 500 people were also reported injured following the 6.2-magnitude quake late on Monday evening. At least 105 people died in Jishishan County in Gansu Province. The neighboring province of Qinghai has reported 11 deaths so far. China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping called for everything to be done to save people.
Eyewitnesses told Xinhua that the earthquake had caused damage to roads and other infrastructure. There was also damage to over 6000 houses in Jishishan. Several villages lost power and the water supply was interrupted. According to the local weather authority, the lowest temperature in Jishishan is expected to reach minus 10 degrees on Tuesday. The provincial fire and rescue department sent helpers to the region. The railroad authority suspended the passage of trains through the earthquake zone.
Chinese state media showed photos of people fleeing their homes after the quake and staying outside wrapped in blankets in wintry temperatures. State television showed rescue workers searching for survivors in the rubble. "We are still in shock," a man from Jishishan told the local news portal Jimu around two hours after the quake. He and his family had run down the stairs from their apartment on the 16th floor. They then took the car to safety.
Repeated earthquakes in China's mountainous regions
The quake was also felt in Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu. Videos were shared on social media of students rushing out of their rooms during the night to get to safety.
Earthquakes are a regular occurrence in the mountainous regions of western China. However, they often hit very sparsely populated regions. The last major earthquake in China with many fatalities occurred last year, when more than 70 people died in the southwest of the country. In 2014, around 600 people died in a quake in Yunnan province. In 2008, the province of Sichuan was shaken by a severe earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9, which killed more than 80,000 people.
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This severe earthquake is not an isolated incident, as natural disasters like this often occur in international settings. Unfortunately, another earthquake in China's mountainous regions has claimed at least 116 lives and injured over 500 people.
As a result of this earthquake, China's head of state and party leader Xi Jinping has called for immediate efforts to save those affected, particularly in the hard-hit Jishishan County in Gansu Province.
Source: www.ntv.de
