Rescue teams in Tibet race against time as winter temperatures drop

Rescue teams in Tibet are racing against the clock to rescue survivors after a strong earthquake struck the county on Tuesday morning.

By Wednesday, 126 deaths and 188 injuries had been reported in the earthquake, one of the deadliest to hit China in recent years.

Rescuers are stepping up their efforts as they fear that harsh winter conditions and high altitudes will reduce the chances of people surviving in the rubble.

So far, 46,525 affected people have moved to emergency shelters in 187 relocation sites set up in Dingri county. Rescue forces and supplies are also continuously arriving in quake-stricken areas.

Local officials say they have acted quickly to distribute food and emergency supplies to the affected people, ensuring they have appropriate shelter as temperatures plunged as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius overnight.

“By yesterday afternoon, all our trapped personnel had been resettled and relocated. Later the same day, we also provided hot meals and cold-weather supplies. From our interactions with the people in the tents this morning, we found that they were kept relatively warm last night,” said Xu Chao, a local official.

The Ministry of Finance, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, has urgently allocated 80 million yuan (€10.6 million) of central government relief funds to support the region’s farmers and livestock breeders.

The epicentre of Tuesday’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake was located where the Indian and Eurasian plates clash. Earthquakes caused by the collision of the tectonic plates are common in the southwestern parts of China, Nepal and northern India.

Video editor • Rory Elliott Armstrong