BEIJING (Washington Insider Magazine)– At least 65 individuals were killed and hundreds were injured in the strong earthquake that caused landslides and rattled buildings in southwestern China, according to official media on Tuesday.
One day after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake, at least 16 more individuals are still unaccounted for in Luding county, Sichuan province, which is located on the Tibetan Plateau’s border where tectonic plates collide and frequently experiences earthquakes. Buildings in Chengdu, the province capital, which is currently under a COVID-19 lockdown and has a population of 21 million, were shaken by the earthquake.
In the historic city of Moxi in the Tibetan autonomous county of Garze, where 37 individuals were killed, power was cut down and structures were destroyed. For the more than 50,000 individuals being evacuated from houses rendered unsafe by the earthquake, tents were set up, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Rescue workers were seen removing an apparently unharmed woman from a crumbled house in Moxi, where several of the structures are made of a combination of brick and wood. There were 150 people reported with injuries of different severity.
On the fringes of Ya’an city, in nearby Shimian county, 28 other individuals died. According to ABC NEWS, 12 additional individuals went missing and another 248 individuals were reported as wounded, mostly in Moxi.
Authorities also reported that rocks and soil from mountain sides had fallen, damaging houses and cutting off electricity, according to CCTV. A remote highway was closed by one landslide and was covered in rock strewn debris, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
Buildings in Chengdu, which is 125 kilometers from the epicenter, trembled.
A drought and heat wave caused water crisis and power outages owing to Sichuan’s dependence on hydropower before the lockdown and earthquake. This comes after China’s most recent significant shutdown in accordance with its stringent “zero-COVID” policy.
A 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Sichuan in 2008 and killed approximately 90,000 people was the worst earthquake to strike China in recent history. Outside of Chengdu, the earthquake destroyed schools, cities, and rural settlements, sparking a years-long campaign to rehabilitate with durable materials.
