Quake shakes southwest China, killing tourists
7.0 tremblor hits mountainous region near national park, cutting power, phone networks; people ‘pretty frightened’
BEIJING — A strong earthquake shook a mountainous region in southwestern China near a famous national park, killing seven people, injuring 88 others and knocking out power and phone networks.
At least five of the dead were tourists. The information office of the Sichuan province government released an updated number of casualties early today, but it didn’t have more details on the victims of the Tuesday evening quake, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said. The office said 21 people were seriously injured.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for rapid efforts to respond to the quake and rescue the injured. Authorities sent medical teams, rescuers and other resources.
The magnitude-6.5 quake struck a region bordered by the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu at a depth of just nine kilometres , according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones.
The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the earthquake at magnitude-7.0 and said it struck at a depth of 20 kilometres. The quake occurred around 9:20 p.m. near Jiuzhaigou, or Jiuzhai Valley, a national park known for spectacular waterfalls and karst formations, the Chinese agency said.
The area is on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau in northern Sichuan province, home to many Tibetan and other ethnic minority villages.
A man surnamed Song who answered the phone at a local emergency office in Aba prefecture, where the Jiuzhaigou national park is located, said the nearby town of Zhangzha reported the deaths and injuries. Song did not say where the five tourists who died were from.
Earthquakes are common in China’s west, although the low population density there often means casualties are low. China’s deadliest earthquake this century, a magnitude-7.9 temblor with a depth of 19 kilometres, struck Sichuan province in May 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people.
The epicentre in Tuesday’s quake was about 39 kilometres from the county of Jiuzhaigou, which has a population of about 80,000, in an area that’s 2,000 metres above sea level.
Jiuzhaigou county had a massive power outage following the quake, Song said. Local officials were being sent to the town of Zhangzha, which was closest to the quake’s epicenter.
“The tremors were very strong,” said a woman in Jiuzhaigou town who gave only her surname, Wang, and said she worked for a travel company. She said the damage in the town centre seemed minimal other than the suspension of electricity. “People from other regions are a pretty frightened,” Wang said. Images on Chinese social media sites showed rocks scattered on roads and people running out of bars and cafés in Jiuzhaigou town onto the street.