A strong earthquake in a hilly farming area in western China knocks down power lines and devastates homes Monday. At least 75 people are dead and over 600 injured, according to the government's earthquake monitoring service. (Photo: Getty Images)
BEIJING?At least 75 people were killed and more than 600 injured when an earthquake struck northwest China's remote and impoverished Gansu province on Monday, the second major temblor to strike western China since April.
The earthquake struck at 7:45 a.m. near the small city of Dingxi, southeast of the provincial capital Lanzhou, China's official Xinhua news agency said. At least 1,200 homes were destroyed and 21,000 others were damaged, Xinhua reported, quoting a spokesman for the provincial government.
A government statement late Monday said 14 people were missing.
ReutersFirefighters on Monday carry a woman hurt in the temblor in remote Gansu province that left at least 75 people dead and more than 600 injured.
Photos posted to Chinese social networks showed badly damaged homes in rural Minxian county, which was among the hardest hit areas. Photos also showed a makeshift hospital in Minxian, where local leaders visited with the injured.
Chinese officials put the earthquake's magnitude at 6.6, while the U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 5.9.
People's Liberation Army soldiers as well as paramilitary police were deployed to the area to aid in rescue efforts, state-run broadcaster China Central Television reported, airing images of rescue workers digging through the rubble of collapsed homes and driving along moderately damaged roads.
Rain was in the forecast around Dingxi, threatening to complicate rescue efforts, Xinhua reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang called for all-out efforts to rescue the injured, according to state media. Beijing in the past has come under criticism for slow responses to disasters, spurring leaders in recent years to make efforts to show the government is waging all-out rescue efforts.
Zuma PressA man stands next to a damaged house in quake-hit Majiagou village in Minxian County, part of northwest China's Gansu Province.
The government said communications had been lost with several of the affected counties and townships, and it wasn't immediately clear late Monday when power and communications would be restored to the area. More than 27,000 people had been relocated from the area as of Monday afternoon, according to a statement from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Monday's earthquake rekindled memories of past disasters, including a large quake in April that killed 200 people and injured more than 11,000 in southwest Sichuan province.
In 2008, more than 80,000 people were killed in a magnitude-7.9 quake in Sichuan. The high death toll was in part blamed on shoddily built schools and others structures which collapsed, leaving thousands of students trapped inside.
Write to Brian Spegele at brian.spegele@wsj.com
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323829104578620701924073828.html?mod=asia_home
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