Earthquake kills 65, triggers landslides in southwest China

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Earthquake kills 65, triggers landslides in southwest China

BEIJING — The powerful earthquake that caused landslides and shook buildings in southwest China has killed at least 65 people and injured hundreds, state media said on Tuesday.

At least 16 more people are missing a day after the 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit a mountainous area in Luding County in Sichuan Province, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau where tectonic plates meet and is regularly hit by earthquakes. The earthquake rocked buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million people are already under COVID-19 lockdown.

Electricity was cut and buildings damaged in the historic town of Moxi in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, where 37 people were killed. Tents have been erected for more than 50,000 people displaced from homes made unsafe by the quake, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

State broadcaster CCTV showed rescue teams pulling a woman who appeared uninjured from a collapsed house in Moxi, where many buildings are constructed from a mixture of wood and bricks. About 150 people were reported with varying degrees of injuries.

Another 28 people were killed in neighboring Shimian county, on the outskirts of Ya’an city. Another 248 people were reported injured, mostly in Moxi, and another 12 people were reported missing.

Three of the dead were workers at the Hailuogou Scenic Area, a nature reserve of glaciers and forests.

Along with the deaths, authorities reported rocks and dirt falling on the mountainside, causing damage to homes and power cuts, CCTV said. A landslide blocked a rural road, leaving it littered with rocks, the Ministry of Emergency Management said.

Buildings shook in Chengdu, 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the epicentre.

The earthquake and lockdown follow a heatwave and drought that led to water shortages and power outages due to Sichuan’s reliance on hydroelectricity. This is in addition to the latest major lockdown under China’s strict ‘zero-COVID’ policy.

China’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a magnitude 7.9 quake in 2008 that killed nearly 90,000 people in Sichuan. The quake devastated towns, schools and rural communities outside Chengdu, prompting a years-long effort to rebuild with stronger materials.

ABC News

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