One minute before midnight Monday to Tuesday, a time when almost everyone is sleeping or at least staying indoors, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Jishishan county in China's Gansu province with a focal depth of 10 kilometers, leaving 118 people dead so far There were deaths and more than 200 injured, as well as damage to the water, electricity, transport and communications infrastructure, according to the count in the morning at local time.
The disaster occurred this Tuesday morning in a high-altitude mountain area with a cold climate and temperatures below -10°C. Located in northwest China, Gansu is the gateway to the desert areas connected to Central Asia. It is one of the poorest regions of the Asian giant. The number of deaths is initially concentrated in this province (around a hundred) and in neighboring Qinghai (11). Jishishan Autonomous County, with a population of around 240,000 people, is predominantly rural and has a predominantly Muslim population.
The quake lasted almost 20 seconds and then several aftershocks occurred in the area, state television broadcaster CCTV said. Images of the disaster show emergency services using flashlights to make their way through the rubble of collapsed houses at night. The Gansu Fire Department immediately dispatched about 580 emergency personnel, 88 trucks and 12 search dogs, CCTV reported. According to CCTV, people were trapped in collapsed houses in several villages.
Earlier in the day, the National Committee for Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief and the Ministry of Emergency Management initiated a Level IV national emergency response and ordered the deployment of a task force to the disaster area to examine the situation on the ground and provide guidance and support local governments in relief efforts. About 1,440 members of the national total fire rescue team were deployed to the disaster area; Another 1,603 firefighters from Gansu Province and other neighboring provinces are prepared.
Due to the extreme conditions in the region, Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for every effort to carry out search and rescue operations and treat the injured in time to minimize casualties. “The People's Liberation Army (the Chinese army) and the Armed Police (China's main paramilitary force) should actively cooperate with local governments to carry out emergency rescue and disaster relief, and make every effort to ensure the safety of lives and property of the people.” population,” the president claimed, the official Xinhua agency reported. “It is necessary to organize and provide emergency rescue materials as soon as possible, repair damaged infrastructure such as power, communications, transportation and heating, properly relocate those affected, ensure the basic life of the population, and do a good job of consoling the families the victim.”
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