Gansu earthquake: rescue operation ‘basically over’, focus on treating and housing survivors

Name: Powerful earthquake strikes northwestern China, killing over 100 people
Uploaded: 2023-12-20T04:11:50.000Z
Duration: 2 min 22 s
Description: Powerful earthquake strikes northwestern China, killing over 100 people

Death toll from Monday night quake at 131, says state media, as teams work to protect residents and restore infrastructure

With more than 87,000 people temporarily relocated, Chinese media reports a shortage of tents to house victims amid cold snap

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

A rescuer uses a sniffer dog to search for survivors at a collapsed houses following a massive earthquake in Jishishan in Gansu province. Photo: AP

Yuanyue Dangin Beijing

Published: 12:11pm, 20 Dec 2023Updated: 7:55pm, 20 Dec 2023

Emergency workers responding to a massive deadly earthquake in northwestern China have shifted focus to housing and treating survivors, with rescue operations “basically over”.

Authorities in Gansu province, the centre of the 6.2-magnitude earthquake, made the assessment on Wednesday as the death toll from the disaster stood at 134 lives.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that teams were still working in the extreme cold to look for at least 13 people missing in neighbouring Qinghai, where 21 of the fatalities from Monday night’s quake occurred.

The quake was the biggest in the country since August 2014 when Yunnan province was rattled, killing 617 people. Officials warned of the threat of aftershocks of at least magnitude 5.

02:22

Powerful earthquake strikes northwestern China, killing over 100 people

Thousands of civilian, military and fire brigade emergency workers were deployed to Jishishan county, the epicentre, on Tuesday, working to locate survivors as temperatures plunged to around minus 14 degrees Celsius (6.8 Fahrenheit).

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x