7.1 earthquake, landslide strike remote regions
BEIJING — A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck a remote part of China’s western Xinjiang region early Tuesday, downing power lines, destroying at least two homes and prompting authorities to suspend trains, state media reported.
Xinhua News Agency cited the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying the quake rocked Uchturpan county (Wushi county in Mandarin) in Aksu prefecture shortly after 2 a.m. local time.
Two houses collapsed, Aksu authorities said, and around 200 emergency rescuers were dispatched to the quake’s epicenter, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The Xinjiang railway authority suspended dozens of trains in the region and sealed off the affected sections, CCTV reported. The quake downed power lines but electricity was quickly restored to the region, Aksu authorities reported.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred in the Tian Shan mountain range, “a seismically active region, though earthquakes of this size occur somewhat infrequently.” It said the largest quake in the area in the past century was a 7.1-magnitude one in 1978 about 200 kilometers to the north of one early Tuesday.
State broadcaster CCTV said there were 14 aftershocks since the main quake, with two registering above 5 magnitude.
The earthquake struck in a rural area populated mostly by Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnicity that is predominantly Muslim and has been the target of a state campaign of forced assimilation and mass detention in recent years.
Uchturpan county at the quake’s epicenter is recording temperatures well below zero, with lows of up to just below zero Fahrenheit forecast by the China
Meteorological Administration this week. Parts of northern and central China have shivered under frigid cold snaps this winter, with authorities closing schools and highways several times due to snowstorms.
The tremors were felt hundreds of miles away. Ma Shengyi, a 30-year-old pet shop owner living in Tacheng, 373 miles from the epicenter, said her dogs started barking before she felt her apartment building shudder. The quake was so strong her neighbors ran downstairs. Ma rushed to her bathroom and started to cry.
“There’s no point in running away if it’s a big earthquake,” Ma said. “I was scared to death.”
Chandeliers swung, buildings were evacuated and a media office building near the epicenter shook for a full minute, Xinhua reported. A video posted by a Chinese internet user on Weibo showed residents standing outside on the streets bundled in winter jackets, and a photo posted by CCTV showed a cracked wall with chunks fallen off.
Tremors were felt across the Xinjiang region and as far away as the neighboring countries Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the Kazakh capital of Almaty, people left their homes, the Russian news agency Tass reported.
Videos posted on the social messaging platform Telegram showed people in Almaty running down the stairs of apartment blocks and standing outside in the street after they felt strong tremors. Some people appeared to have left their homes quickly and were pictured standing outside in freezing temperatures in shorts.
LANDSLIDE IN SW CHINA CLAIMS 47
BEIJING — A landslide buried 47 people in a remote village in mountainous southwestern China on Monday, state media said. Hours later, two survivors were rescued amid freezing temperatures and falling snow.
The disaster struck just before 6 a.m. in the village of Liangshui in the northeastern part of Yunnan province. By evening, nine bodies were retrieved and about 500 people were evacuated from the area.
Rescue crews continued to try and find victims who were buried in about 18 homes, the Zhenxiong county publicity department said. Reports said eight of the bodies were from the group that was initially buried by the landslide but did not say where the ninth body was found.
The cause of the landslide wasn’t immediately known as survivors and rescuers struggled with snow, icy roads and freezing temperatures that were forecast to persist for at least the next three days.
Luo Dongmei, 35, was sleeping when the landslide struck, but she survived and was relocated to a school building by local authorities.
“I was asleep, but my brother knocked on the door and woke me up. They said there was a landslide and the bed was shaking, so they rushed upstairs and woke us up,” Luo said.
Luo, her husband and their three children, along with many other residents, have been provided with food at the school but are still waiting for blankets and other protection from the cold weather, she said.
Luo said she’s been unable to contact her sister and aunt, who lived closer to the site of the landslide. “The only thing I can do is to wait,” she said.
State broadcaster CCTV put the death toll at nine by 6 p.m., roughly 12 hours after the disaster struck. Zhengxiong county lies about 1,400 miles southwest of Beijing, with altitudes ranging as high as 7,900 feet.
Heavy snow has struck many parts of China, causing transportation chaos and endangering lives.