Not less than 74 individuals killed after earthquake hits southwestern China

Not less than 74 individuals have been killed and 26 others stay lacking after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook southwestern China.

The quake struck the province of Sichuan on Monday, triggering landslides and shaking buildings within the provincial capital Chengdu.

Energy was knocked out and buildings broken within the historic city of Moxi within the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Garze, the place 37 individuals had been killed.

Photographs on state tv confirmed rescue crews pulling a girl alive from a collapsed home in Moxi, the place most of the buildings are constructed from a mixture of wooden and brick. Round 150 individuals had been reported with various levels of accidents.

Greater than 50,000 individuals have been evacuated from their properties, the official Xinhua Information Company reported on Tuesday.

Sichuan, which sits on the sting of the Tibetan Plateau, is repeatedly hit by earthquakes. As much as 21 million residents within the metropolis are at the moment below a strict “zero-COVID” lockdown. The restrictions had prevented residents from leaving their buildings amid the earthquake tremors.

The earthquake follows a warmth wave and drought that led to water shortages and energy cuts as a consequence of Sichuan’s reliance on hydropower.

China’s deadliest earthquake lately was a 7.9-magnitude quake in 2008 that killed practically 90,000 individuals in Sichuan. The temblor devastated cities, colleges and rural communities, resulting in a years-long effort to rebuild with extra resistant supplies.