Shallow magnitude 6.2 quake strikes near border of Gansu and Qinghai in remote, mountainous region
\nJishishan county
\nAt least 118 people have been killed and hundreds injured after an earthquake hit northwestern China in a remote and mountainous region while many were asleep at home.
\nThe authorities quickly mobilised several emergency responses, but their work was complicated as the earthquake wrecked roads and infrastructure, triggered landslides, and half buried a village in silt. The rescue work has also proved challenging in subzero temperatures, with most of China grappling with below-freezing conditions after a powerful cold wave swept across the country.
\n\u201cThe mountainous, remote, arid regions are not easy to get to, and \u2026 they are more underdeveloped and poor than the rest of China and that is reflected in the quality of the construction,\u201d said Al Jazeera\u2019s Katrina Yu reporting from Beijing, adding that the government said about 4,000 homes have been destroyed and some villages have collapsed entirely.
\nChinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for \u201call-out efforts\u201d in the search and relief operations. Nearly 1,500 firefighters were deployed with another 1,500 on standby, according to state media. More than 300 officers and soldiers were also mobilised for disaster relief.
\nThe earthquake had a magnitude of 6.2, according to state news agency Xinhua. It struck at 23:59 pm (15:59 GMT) on Monday in Gansu province near the border with Qinghai, causing significant damage, state media reported on Tuesday.
\nThe tremor was felt as far away as Xi\u2019an in northern Shaanxi province, about 570km (350 miles) from the epicentre.
\nGansu provincial authorities told a press conference that as of 7:50am (23:50 GMT on Monday), 105 people had been confirmed dead, and 397 injured. More than 4,700 houses had been damaged, they added. Power and water supplies were disrupted in some villages, Xinhua said.
\nA further 13 people died, 182 were injured and 20 were missing in the city of Haidong in neighbouring Qinghai province, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
\nState television footage showed emergency vehicles driving along snow-lined highways, and rescue workers pictured shoulder to shoulder in the trucks.
\nSupplies including drinking water, blankets, stoves and instant noodles were also being sent to the affected area.
\nPeople living close to the epicentre rushed out onto the street as they felt the earthquake. Some buildings collapsed.
\n\u201cI live on the 16th floor and felt the tremors so strongly,\u201d a man named Qin was quoted as saying in the state-run Global Times. \u201cThe moment of the earthquake was feeling like being tossed up after surging waves \u2026 I woke my family up and we rushed down all 16 floors in one breath.
\nQin added that it was minus 12 degrees Celsius (10.4 Fahrenheit), and that while some of his neighbours had put on down jackets or wrapped themselves in blankets others were bare-chested.
\nThe United States Geological Survey reported the quake was a magnitude 5.9, while the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said it was a magnitude 6.1.
\nThe earthquake struck Gansu\u2019s Jishishan county at a depth of 10km (6 miles). Gansu has a population of about 26 million people and includes part of the Gobi Desert.
\nTaiwan offers help
\nOn Tuesday, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen expressed condolences to China and offered her government\u2019s help after the earthquake, despite the tensions between the two sides.
\n\u201cWe pray that all those affected receive the aid they need, and we hope for a swift recovery. Taiwan stands ready to offer assistance in the disaster response effort,\u201d she added, writing in English and simplified Chinese characters, which are used in China but not Taiwan.
\nProblems between Taipei and Beijing, which views the democratically governed island as its own territory, have soared in the past four years, as China seeks to assert its sovereignty claims with political and military pressure.
\nEarthquakes are common in western provinces such as Gansu, which lie on the eastern boundary of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, a tectonically active area.
\nIn September 2022, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit Sichuan province, killing almost 100 people.
\nA magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 left more than 87,000 people dead or missing, including 5,335 children who were in school at the time it happened.
\nAt least 242,000 people were killed in 1976 after an earthquake struck Tangshan in the worst natural disaster in Chinese history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shallow magnitude 6.2 quake strikes near border of Gansu and Qinghai in remote, mountainous region Jishishan county At least 118 people have been killed and hundreds injured after an earthquake hit northwestern China in a remote and mountainous region while many were asleep at home. The authorities quickly mobilised several emergency responses, but their work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-375552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n