Rescuers battled through dusty rubble Tuesday to try to reach victims of two shallow earthquakes in China that killed at least 92 people, as traumatised survivors struggled with the devastation left behind.
State broadcaster CCTV showed images of soldiers digging through earth and sand to reach simple houses buried under landslides in the northwestern province of Gansu.
Seriously injured patients wrapped in blankets were put into helicopters heading to the provincial capital Lanzhou, which has the nearest major hospital.
The city government of Dingxi, which includes the worst-affected counties, said on its verified social media account that 92 people had been killed (although Reuters has confirmed the toll at 89), with hundreds more injured.
In Meichuan, where officials said 61 people had been confirmed dead, Bo Yonghu, 25, stared solemnly at the remains of her family’s mud and stone home.
The back wall had been caved in by boulders crashing down the hillside behind.
“I thought it was going to be completely swallowed by the mountain,” she told AFP. “I will not be entering the house again. Not ever.”
Roads in the area were peppered with large boulders fallen from the surrounding mountains, and relief workers used shovels to clear a large landslide.
Initial investigations showed at least 5,785 houses had collapsed and another 73,000 were severely damaged, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
Around 6,000 rescuers, among them armed police, firefighters, militiamen and local government staff had been sent to the region, it added.
Hundreds of aftershocks were recorded in the disaster zone, an area of dusty, jagged mountains.
CCTV showed makeshift tent relief centres being set up, with water, instant noodles and blankets being handed out.
Throughout the night, scores of rescue vehicles headed south from Lanzhou to the quake area.
Many rescue workers had travelled from across the country and refused to rest during the night as they raced to find survivors. Any storms could hamper the rescue efforts, bringing with them the threat of further landslides.
The USGS rated Monday’s main tremor at seven on its “shakemap,” with shaking perceived to be “very strong.”
Much of western China is prone to earthquakes. Around 230,000 people were killed in a magnitude 8.5 tremor in Gansu in 1920.
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province killed about 200 people earlier this year, five years after almost 90,000 people were killed by a huge tremor in the same province.