Beijing, December 19 (EFE).- Rescue teams continue to work against time amid an intense cold wave to find survivors after the earthquake that shook China’s Gansu and Qinghai (northwestern) provinces on Monday night and left at . at least 127 dead and 734 injured.
Teams fear temperatures as low as -14 degrees Celsius will complicate relief efforts, a rescuer told Chinese magazine Newsweek. This statement also points to difficulties in accessing mountainous regions affected by the earthquake. The epicenter of the 6.2 magnitude earthquake was on the border between the two provinces mentioned above.
According to official media reports, at least 20 people are missing, along with 127 dead (113 in Gansu and 14 in Qinghai) and injured. Despite the storm, teams are trying to find these people using unmanned aerial vehicles, excavators and bulldozers.
“The 72 hours after the earthquake when survivors are most likely to be rescued may be shortened by bad weather conditions, leaving trapped victims at greater risk,” state news agency Xinhua said. said.
The Chinese Ministry of Administration and Emergency Management responded to the incident, which particularly affected Gansu’s Jishisan district and neighboring Qinghai’s Haidong city, by sending doctors and medical supplies to the region during World War II. level decided to intervene. Disaster.
Likewise, more than 2,000 firefighters were sent for relief efforts following the earthquake in Jishisan district, which damaged more than 150,000 houses, adding to the disruption of water, communications and electricity supplies.
The armed forces are also participating in rescue and relief operations, for which Beijing has allocated 200 million yuan (about $28 million, 25 million euros).
Buildings with low earthquake resistance
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday morning called on local authorities to “make every effort” to treat the injured, repair infrastructure and relocate those affected.
It is the deadliest earthquake in China since an earthquake in the western Yunnan province in August 2014 killed 617 people, but is a far cry from the 2008 quake in Sichuan province that killed at least 70,000 people.
Local press points out that there was a “significant number of casualties” in last night’s earthquake due to the “low seismic resistance” of the buildings in these regions, to which we should also add the moment of the earthquake at night. Global Times newspaper states that a maneuver is necessary to carry out the evacuation on time.
Some residents told local newspaper The Paper that many people were sleeping and did not have time to take shelter when the earthquake struck around midnight local.
This newspaper also includes the testimony of a woman whose house instantly collapsed and who managed to escape because she was still awake when the ground shook.
Videos and photos circulating on Chinese social networks today showed firefighters trying to rescue residents trapped under rubble and scores of affected people taking shelter under quilts on the roads.
In response, authorities sent supplies consisting of 2,600 tents, 10,400 folding beds, 10,400 quilts and 1,000 sets of stoves.
As of Tuesday morning, a total of 111,500 relief items were allocated to meet the basic needs of affected people.
According to preliminary analysis by the China Earthquake Networks Center, the epicenter occurred in the northeastern region of the Tibetan Plateau, a seismic region subject to frequent earthquakes due to its proximity to where the tectonic plates of Asia and China collide. In the Himalayas, India.
Another seismic event of magnitude 5.5 was recorded today in China’s Xinjiang region, also in the northwest but away from populated areas, with no personal or property damage reported.