Beijing:
At least 127 people were killed and more than 700 injured after a powerful 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit a mountainous region of northwest China at midnight on Monday. This is the deadliest earthquake in China in the last nine years. Several aftershocks were also felt, local officials said on Tuesday. He said the earthquake killed 113 people in Gansu and 14 in Qinghai province in the Himalayan region. Officials are carrying out rescue operations in snowy conditions.
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Qinghai Province is adjacent to the Tibet Himalayan region, which is prone to earthquakes due to sliding continental plates. State news agency Xinhua said 536 people were injured in Gansu, while 182 people were injured in Qinghai and 20 others were missing. The China Earthquake Network Center said the earthquake hit Gansu and Qinghai provinces at 11:59 p.m. Monday and was centered at a depth of 10 kilometers from the ground.
A few hours later, at 9.46am on Tuesday, another earthquake hit the neighboring Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. According to ‘CENC’, the epicenter of the earthquake was at a depth of 10 km from the ground. Later, earthquake tremors were also felt in Gansu and Qinghai. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the town of Liugo, eight kilometers from Zhishan County in Gansu. Due to this earthquake, 1,55,393 houses have been damaged in Gansu.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang have ordered massive rescue operations. Xi asked local authorities to immediately treat the injured and closely monitor the earthquake situation and changes in the weather. Electricity and water supply has been disrupted in many villages due to the earthquake. The Ministry of Transport said on Tuesday morning that the bridge over the ‘Yellow River’ had cracked due to the earthquake.
Railway authorities have suspended passenger and goods trains in the quake-hit area and ordered a safety check on the railway tracks. This is the worst earthquake to hit China in the last nine years. Earlier in 2014, an earthquake in Yunnan province killed 617 people.
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