The number of fatalities caused by a powerful earthquake in China rose this Tuesday to 65, state media reported Tuesday. They also reported hundreds of people injured and at least 16 missing as a result of this natural phenomenon that affected the southwest of the Asian country on Monday.
The telluric movement of magnitude 6.8 It was recorded in a mountainous area of Luding County, in Sichuan province, which is located on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, in an area where two tectonic plates meet, so it regularly experiences earthquakes.
The tremor shook buildings in the regional capital, Chengdu, whose 21 million residents were confined by COVID-19.
In the historic town of Moxi, in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Garze, where there were 37 deaths, the power supply was interrupted and damage to buildings was recorded.
Tents were set up to shelter the more than 50,000 people who were evicted from their homes, which were no longer safe after the earthquake.
Rescuers walk on the road after an earthquake in Luding county, Sichuan province. Photo EFE/EPA
State broadcaster CCTV showed rescue teams pulling an apparently uninjured woman out of a collapsed house in Moxi, where many of the buildings are built with a mixture of wood and bricks. According to reports, around 150 people suffered injuries of varying degrees in that area.
A further 28 people were killed in neighboring Shimian County, outside the city of Ya’an. In addition, 248 wounded were registered, mostly in Moxi, and 12 disappeared.
Three of the deceased worked in the tourist area of Hailuogou, a nature reserve of glaciers and forests.
Damage from stone falls and landslides
In addition to the deaths, the authorities reported falling stones and landslides on the slopes of the mountains, which caused damage to homes and power outages, according to CCTV. An avalanche blocked a rural road, leaving it littered with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.
The tremor was felt at 12:52 p.m. local time and had its epicenter 200 km southwest of the city of Chengdu, with a depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
A collapsed building after the earthquake, in Sichuan province. Photo EFE/EPA
According to the scale used by China’s seismological authorities, a magnitude 6 earthquake means that most affected people cannot stand stably during the quake and cracks in the walls and the collapse of tiles and chimneys can occur.
The earthquake and coronavirus lockdown followed a heat wave and drought that have led to water shortages and power outages due to Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower. All of this comes on top of the latest major lockdown under China’s strict “zero COVID” policy, since last Friday.
Sichuan province is located in an area with frequent seismic activity and it was the scene of a catastrophic earthquake in May 2008, of a magnitude of 8 degrees and that left more than 90,000 dead and missing.
With information from agencies.
ES