6.2 Richter-scale Earthquake Rocks Gansu, China: 118 Killed and Hundreds Injured

JAKARTA - At least 118 people were killed and hundreds more injured as a result of an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale that rocked a remote and mountainous region on the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau just before midnight on Monday.

The earthquake occurred at 11:59 p.m. local time on Monday in the Jishishan area, Gansu at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC), reported by Reuters, December 19.

Authorities immediately launched an emergency response after the earthquake damaged roads and infrastructure, triggered landslides, and left half of the village buried in mud. It becomes less easy when the temperature goes below zero degrees.

In Gansu, 105 people had died as of 07:50 Tuesday local time. Meanwhile, of the 397 people injured, 16 were in critical condition, the provincial government said at a press conference.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Qinghai rose to at least 13 people and 182 people were injured. Apart from that, officially around 20 people are still declared missing.

About 2,200 personnel from the Gansu Province fire department and 900 from the forest brigade, as well as 260 professional emergency rescue workers, were sent to the disaster zone, Xinhua news agency reported, adding that hundreds of military and police personnel were also deployed.

The provincial government moved quickly, allocating aid to local governments for emergency response work, and also sending aid that included 2,600 cotton tents, 10,400 folding beds, 10,400 blankets, 10,400 cotton mattresses and 1,000 sets of stoves.

Meanwhile, the disaster area is in a highland region where the weather is cold, causing rescue efforts to be carried out to prevent subsequent disasters caused by factors other than the earthquake, said Xinhua.

It is known that the temperature in Linxia, ​​Gansu, near where the earthquake occurred, was around minus 14 degrees Celsius (6.8°F) on Tuesday morning.

Although 72 hours after the earthquake is the most likely time to rescue victims, this will be shortened due to bad weather, leaving trapped victims at higher risk.

A number of water, electricity, transportation, communications and other infrastructure were damaged.

State media reported at least 32 aftershocks occurred in the hour after the quake struck. Gansu officials told reporters that the last strong earthquake with a magnitude of at least 5.0 on the Richter scale that occurred within 100 km of the epicenter occurred in 2019.

A total of nine aftershocks of magnitude 3.0 and above were recorded on Tuesday morning, two of which were at least magnitude 4.0, CENC said.

It is known that earthquakes are common in western provinces such as Gansu, which is located on the eastern border of the tectonically active Qinghai-Tibet plateau. China's deadliest earthquake in decades occurred in 2008, when a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck Sichuan, killing nearly 70,000 people.