Cold weather is hampering rescue efforts after an earthquake in China’s Gansu and Qinghai provinces that killed at least 126 people and injured more than 500.
The strong shallow earthquake struck shortly before midnight on Monday, sending residents fleeing outside into below-freezing temperatures. Thousands of houses have been reported damaged, and state media said public infrastructure had been damaged “to varying degrees”.
The death toll rose on Tuesday morning as rescuers reached affected areas. Gansu authorities said 113 people had died in the province, with 397 people injured. Qinghai reported 13 dead, 182 injured, and 20 still missing.
It is the deadliest earthquake in China since the 2010 Yushu quake hit Gansu and Qinghai, which measured 6.9 and killed at least 2,698 people.
State media characterised the rescue effort as a “race against time” because of a cold wave sweeping across China. The high-altitude area where the earthquake hit reported temperatures of -14C on Tuesday morning.
“Based on past rescues, the biggest difficulty of this operation is the local low temperature,” said Wang Duo, a team leader from the Gansu Houtian disaster rescue centre, according to China News Weekly.
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, called for “all-out efforts” in the search and rescue work. More than 3,000 firefighters have been deployed or placed on standby, and hundreds of military personnel have been sent to the area. Taxis are being used to transport the injured to hospitals, and civil relief teams have set up camps in public parks, Xinhua reported.
The ministries of finance and emergency management have allocated 200m yuan (£22.1m) in emergency relief funds, according to state media.
Tents, folding beds and quilts were being sent to the disaster area, state broadcaster CCTV said. At least 4,000 firefighters, soldiers and police officers were dispatched in the rescue effort, and the People’s Liberation Army Western Theatre set up a command post to direct its work.
Han, the Gansu spokesperson, said rescue work was proceeding in an orderly manner and asked people to avoid going to the quake-hit areas to prevent traffic jams that could hinder the effort.
A video posted by the ministry of emergency management showed emergency workers in orange uniforms using rods to try to move heavy pieces of what looked like concrete debris at night. Other nighttime videos distributed by state media showed workers lifting out a victim and helping a slightly stumbling person to walk in an area covered with light snow.
Footage from the scene showed rescuers working by torchlight, helping people out of collapsed houses.
Photos and videos posted by a student at Lanzhou University showed students hastily leaving a dormitory building and standing outside with long down jackets over their pajamas.
“The earthquake was too intense,” said Wang Xi, the student who posted the images. “My legs went weak, especially when we ran downstairs from the dormitory.”
“Human beings are really insignificant in the face of natural disasters,” said one Gansu resident on Weibo. “I was at the epicentre of the earthquake, and my mother and I couldn’t run away. The house was shaking so much that I couldn’t even stand up, and things were falling down. It was very cold outside at more than ten degrees below zero. I didn’t go back all night and there were constant aftershocks.”
The resident later said they had returned to their house but the situation in neighbouring villages, where the houses were very old, were “very serious”.
Chinese authorities measured the quake at a magnitude of 6.2. The US geological survey (USGS) reported earlier that it was 5.9.
The earthquake struck at a depth of 10km, about 100km south-west of Gansu province’s capital, Lanzhou.
Aftershock continued on Tuesday, with several tremors measuring between 3.0 and 4.5. On Tuesday a separate 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck Xinjiang province.
Earthquakes are somewhat common in the mountainous area of western China, which rises up to form the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau.
In August, a shallow 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck eastern China, injuring 23 people and collapsing dozens of buildings.
China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan.
The temblor devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, leading to a years-long effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
Additional reporting by Chi Hui Lin, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
