A government worker looks at the debris of a house brought down in the earthquake in Jishishan county in northwest China’s Gansu province Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023.
BEIJING — A strong earthquake struck a remote part of western China overnight killing at least 118 people and injuring more than 200, the state news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday.
The tremblor hit Jishishan County, in the southwestern part of Gansu province near the border with Qinghai province — a mountainous region populated, in part, by members of the Tibetan, Hui, Dongxiang and Salar ethnic groups.
Xinhua said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.2. Of the dead, 100 were in Gansu and another 11 in Qinghai.
The quake damaged water, electricity, transport, communications and other infrastructure in the area, it said.
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping quickly called for all-out efforts in search and rescue and treating the injured. He also urged the hasty deployment of relief materials and infrastructure repairs, because the affected area is at high altitude and the winter weather is cold.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.9, and reported several aftershocks.
Rescue teams told Chinese media that frozen roads made driving into the towns and villages in Jishishan county, the area most affected. It’s a mountainous area inhabited by numerous ethnic minority groups, including Tibetans and Salars. Rescuers are now working in average temperatures of about 14 degrees Fahrenheit, well below freezing.
About 10 hours later, farther west, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake in the Xinjiang region struck near China’s border with Kygyzstan. The earthquake happened in a remote area. So far, no casualties or building damage has been reported.
