Earthquake in Tibet: 400 rescued, search continues amid severe cold
Kyiv • UNN
A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake hits Tibet, killing 126 people and injuring 188. Rescuers have evacuated more than 400 people, but the search is complicated by extremely low temperatures.
More than 400 people in Tibet who were trapped after a deadly earthquake in the foothills of the Himalayas have been rescued, Chinese officials said on Wednesday, but an unknown number remain missing amid severe cold weather, Reuters reports, UNN writes.
Details
The epicenter of Tuesday's 6.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the region's most powerful tremors in recent years, was in Tingri in Chinese Tibet, about 80 km north of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. It also shook buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India.
Twenty-four hours after the earthquake, those trapped in the rubble had to spend the night in below-freezing temperatures, increasing the pressure on rescuers searching for survivors in an area the size of Cambodia.
The temperature in the highland region dropped to minus 18 degrees Celsius overnight. People who are trapped or homeless are at risk of rapid hypothermia and may only be able to survive for five to 10 hours, even if they are not injured, experts cited by the publication said.
At least 126 people were reported dead and 188 wounded on the Tibetan side, according to state-run CCTV. No deaths were reported in Nepal or elsewhere.
Chinese authorities have not yet announced how many people are missing. In Nepal, an official told Reuters that the earthquake destroyed a school building in a village near Mount Everest, which is located on the Nepal-Tibetan border, but that no one was inside at the time.
Initial surveys showed that 3,609 houses were destroyed in Tibet's Shigadze region, home to 800,000 people, state media reported late Tuesday night, citing local officials. More than 1,800 rescuers and 1,600 soldiers have been dispatched to the region.
State media reported that more than 30,000 people affected by the earthquake had been relocated.
State media reported that the Tashilunpo Monastery, founded in 1447 by the first Dalai Lama, in Shigadze was not damaged.
As of 8 a.m. (00:00 GMT) on Wednesday, more than 500 aftershocks with magnitudes up to 4.4 have occurred after the quake, the China Seismological Network Center reported.
According to the local earthquake bureau, 29 earthquakes of magnitude 3 and higher have occurred within 200 km of Tuesday's epicenter over the past five years.
Tuesday's earthquake was the strongest in China since the 6.2 magnitude quake in 2023, which killed at least 149 people in a remote northwestern region.
In 2008, an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck Chengdu, Sichuan, killing at least 70,000 people. It was the deadliest earthquake in China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed at least 242,000 people.
Death toll from Tibet earthquake rises to 126Jan 7 2025, 03:34 PM • 20167 views
