“Tibet earthquake: 400 rescued, search continues amid bitter cold A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Tibet, killing 126 people and injuring 188. Rescuers have evacuated more than 400 people, but the search is being complicated by extremely cold temperatures.”, — write on: unn.ua
Details
The epicenter of Tuesday’s 6.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the region’s strongest in recent years, was in Tingra in China’s Tibet, about 80 km north of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain. It also shook buildings in neighboring Nepal, Bhutan and India.
Twenty-four hours after the quake, those trapped under the rubble had to spend the night in sub-zero temperatures, adding to the pressure on rescuers searching for survivors across an area the size of Cambodia.
The temperature in the highland region dropped to minus 18 degrees Celsius overnight. People who are trapped or without a roof over their heads are at risk of rapid hypothermia and may be able to survive for only five to 10 hours, even if they are not injured, said experts cited by the publication.
At least 126 people have been killed and 188 injured on the Tibetan side, according to the state broadcaster CCTV. No deaths were reported in Nepal or elsewhere.
Chinese authorities have not yet announced how many people are believed to be missing. In Nepal, an official told Reuters that the earthquake destroyed a school building in a village near Mount Everest, which is on the Nepal-Tibet border, but that no one was inside at the time.
An initial survey showed that 3,609 houses had been destroyed in Tibet’s Shigadze region, home to 800,000 people, state media reported late Tuesday, citing local officials. More than 1,800 rescuers and 1,600 soldiers were sent 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, which was 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 of magnitude up to 4.4 had occurred since the earthquake, the China Seismological Network Center said.
According to the local earthquake bureau, over the past five years, 29 earthquakes of magnitude 3 and higher have occurred within a radius of 200 km from the epicenter of Tuesday’s earthquake.
Tuesday’s quake was China’s worst since a 6.2-magnitude quake in 2023 that killed at least 149 people in the remote northwestern region.
In 2008, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck Chengdu, Sichuan Province, killing at least 70,000 people. It was China’s deadliest earthquake since the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, which killed at least 242,000 people.
The number of people killed as a result of the earthquake in Tibet has increased to 126 peopleJanuary 7 2025, 15:34 • 18691 views