Thousands of rescuers brave the cold and altitude on Wednesday in China to find survivors after a devastating earthquake which killed at least 126 people and caused the collapse of thousands of buildings in Tibet.
Videos published by Chinese public television CCTV show rescuers extracting injured people from the rubble, setting up thick anti-cold tents and even examining the injured.
In other images, a man dressed in a thick winter coat carries a crying child on his shoulder.
At least 126 people were killed and 188 others injured following the earthquake on Tuesday morning in the rural township of Tingri, in Tibet (southwest China), not far from the Nepalese border, according to CCTV.
Regional officials indicated Wednesday afternoon that this assessment, published the previous evening, had not been revised upwards since.
More than 3,600 buildings have collapsed and 187 disaster relief sites, accommodating 46,500 people, have been set up, said Hong Li, director of the Emergency Management Office of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
“The affected location is located at high altitude on a high plateau, it is a mountainous area where the cold is intense and transport, communication and electricity infrastructure are limited,” he stressed.
“Relief operations are now focusing on rehousing those affected and rebuilding,” he said.
– Freezing temperatures –
The canton of Tingri has around 62,000 inhabitants and is located at an average altitude of around 4,500 meters, not far from the Chinese side of Everest.
The epicenter is about 370 km southwest of the regional capital, Lhasa.
The temperature in Tingri township could drop to -16 degrees on Thursday morning, according to the national weather agency.
More than 12,000 rescuers, including firefighters, soldiers, police and professional rescuers have been deployed, Xinhua said.
Authorities have sent emergency aid, including cotton tents, quilts and other equipment needed to withstand the harsh weather conditions, she said.
The damage is notable in the commune of Lhatsé, according to a witness interviewed by AFP.
-“Some of the older houses have collapsed, and many of the brick buildings have large cracks,” said Meng Lingkang, a 23-year-old tourist.
The magnitude of the earthquake was 6.8, according to China’s National Earthquake Agency (CENC). The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a magnitude of 7.1.
Many of the houses that collapsed appear to have been built with traditional materials such as stone, mud bricks and wooden beams.
AFP is unable to go there, as access to Tibet is strictly regulated for foreign media.
– Putin and Macron –
Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Tuesday to “do everything possible to carry out search and rescue operations as well as to treat the injured”, according to CCTV.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply saddened” by the human losses, as did the Dalai Lama, the main figure of Tibetan Buddhism, who lives in exile.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to Xi Jinping, saying Russia “shares the pain” of the Chinese.
France, for its part, offered “its assistance to help the affected Himalayan populations”, through a message from President Emmanuel Macron on X.
While earthquakes are common in the region, Tuesday’s was the most powerful recorded within a 200-kilometer radius in the last five years, the CENC said.
In Nepal, the earthquake, felt in the capital Kathmandu, hit areas around Namche and Lobuche, near Everest base camp. No deaths have been reported.
An earthquake that occurred in December 2023 in China left 148 dead in the province of Gansu (northwest).
In May 2008, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake left 87,000 people dead or missing in the province of Sichuan (southwest). The disaster caused a national shock.
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