The balance of deaths due to the magnitude 6.8 earthquake registered this Monday in the Chinese province of Sichuan (in the southwest of the country) amounted to 65, as confirmed by the authorities on Tuesday, detailing that the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is the most affected by the earthquake.
Firefighters and the military search Tuesday for survivors among the rubble left by a strong earthquake in southwestern Chinawhich killed at least 65 people and caused extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure.
Thirty-seven deaths have been reported so far in Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and 28 in neighboring Shimian County, a total of 65, according to CCTV and People Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, as quoted by the Radio France International.
In addition, there are almost 250 injured and 12 missing according to figures published by state media.
CCTV television also reported some 200 people blocked in the Hailuo Valley, a very touristic area of glaciers and snowy peaks located at more than 2,850 meters of altitude.
The magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurred on Monday shortly before 1:00 p.m. (01:00 a.m. in Chile) at a depth of 10 kilometers in Sichuan province, according to the US Geological Services.
The epicenter was in Luding county, an area of valleys, raging rivers and narrow roads on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, about 200 kilometers west of the provincial capital Chengdu.
Public television CCTV broadcast videos Tuesday of firefighters pulling a woman’s bruised and bloody body from the ruins or carrying a wounded man on a stretcher across a makeshift bridge over a river.
Other images showed wooden and concrete buildings pockmarked by the earthquake, some partially collapsed and others precariously balanced.
Some routes, turned into ruins or fractured by the earthquake, are impassable and force rescuers to cross rivers on makeshift bridges or with cables stretched between the two banks.
mobilized military
The Chinese army announced the deployment of 1,900 soldiers to participate in the search for missing persons and help the population.
State media broadcast images of residents temporarily rehoused in large blue tents and supplied with food and water by soldiers.
The quake also shook buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, where millions of people are confined by a Covid outbreak, and the nearby megacity of Chongqing, local residents told Agence France-Presse.
“I heard a thunderous noise. The house was shaking so hard that I woke up immediately,” a woman surnamed Zheng from Lu county told the Beijing News.
“My brother’s house collapsed. His house is old, built more than ten years ago. Mine is new, so the situation is better,” he explained.
After the quake, the area has recorded at least 10 aftershocks of magnitude 3 or higher, according to a latest count by the China Earthquake Network Center.
rain forecast
President Xi Jinping urged on Monday night “to do everything possible to help the affected people” and “minimize human losses,” the official Xinhua news agency said.
Meteorological services warned on Tuesday of rains in the coming days in the most affected area that may complicate relief operations.
Earthquakes are relatively common in China, especially in Sichuan. In June, at least four people died and dozens were injured by two earthquakes.
And in 2008, the region was the victim of a terrible magnitude 7.9 earthquake in 2008 that left 87,000 dead or missing, including thousands of students whose schools collapsed.
Southern China also suffered an extremely hot boreal summer, with record high temperatures drying up rivers in Chongqing.