Key Points
- At least 46 people were killed when an earthquake struck southwestern China on Monday.
- The magnitude 6.6 quake hit about 43 kilometres southeast of the city of Kangding in Sichuan province.
Rescuers scoured through rubble for hundreds of missing people in parts of southwestern China on Tuesday after an earthquake killed more than 60, as local weather services warned rain was set to inundate the area.
The magnitude 6.6 quake hit about 43 kilometres southeast of the city of Kangding in Sichuan province at a depth of 10 kilometres on Monday, according to the US Geological Survey.
At least 65 people were killed, state media reported Tuesday morning, with more than 200 still trapped in a remote scenic area and scores missing elsewhere.
Video from state broadcaster CCTV showed firefighters pulling a bruised and bloodied woman from the rubble and carrying a survivor on a stretcher across a river on a makeshift bridge, as well as damaged buildings and streets strewn with fallen masonry.
And footage shared by the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) showed boulders thundering down mountainsides in Luding county, kicking up clouds of dust as the tremors swayed roadside telephone wires.
At least one town suffered "severe damage" from landslides triggered by the quake, CCTV reported.
"Before 5 o'clock, I heard a rumbling sound. The house shook so badly that I woke up immediately," one woman surnamed Zheng from Sichuan's Lu county told Beijing News.
"My brother's house collapsed. His house is an old one built more than 10 years ago. My house is newly built, so the situation is better."
'All-out to rescue people'
The quake also rocked buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu — where millions are confined to their homes under a strict COVID-19 lockdown — and in the nearby megacity of Chongqing, local residents said.
The local meteorological department has said Luding county — the epicentre of the quake — will experience rain for three days, potentially hampering rescue work.
China's cabinet last night said it had dispatched a special team to lead the efforts, with CCTV reporting more than 6,500 people had been sent to emergency rescue.
And President Xi Jinping called for local authorities to "make saving lives the first priority, go all-out to rescue people in disaster-stricken areas and minimise loss of life", according to CCTV.
Local officials have launched a public appeal for donations to help with relief work.
Quake-prone region
Earthquakes are fairly common in China, especially in the country's seismically active southwest.
A smaller magnitude 4.6 tremor hit eastern Tibet less than an hour after the initial quake, according to the USGS.
A magnitude 8.0 quake in 2008 in Sichuan's Wenchuan county left tens of thousands dead and caused enormous damage.
In June, at least four people were killed and dozens more injured after two earthquakes in southwestern China.
That month, a shallow 6.1-magnitude shock hit a sparsely populated area about 100 kilometres west of Chengdu.
Rescuers prepare for duty following the earthquake in Luding County of southwest China's Sichuan Province Monday, 5 September, 2022. Credit: CCTV
Taiwan offers condolences, ready to send rescuers
Taiwan's government expressed its condolences to China on Tuesday for an earthquake in Sichuan province and said it was ready to send rescuers, in a sign of goodwill to Beijing despite weeks of military tensions.
China, which claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei, has been carrying out drills around the island following a visit last month by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Taiwan's presidential office said President Tsai Ing-wen had offered her "sympathy and concern" after Monday's quake in southwestern China.
Apart from also expressing her condolences to those who had died and their families, Ms Tsai hopes search and rescue and post-disaster recovery work can proceed smoothly and normal life resume as soon as possible, the office said in a statement.
The office was not aware of any Taiwanese casualties, it added.
Taiwan's fire department said separately it had assembled a rescue team of 40 people, one search dog and five tonnes of equipment which could immediately leave if given instructions to do so, saying it was "committed to the spirit of humanitarian care and disaster relief without borders".
China has not said whether it will allow overseas teams to help with search and rescue operations.
Taiwan, which frequently suffers its own earthquakes, sent a team to China in 2008 after a massive temblor struck the same province of Sichuan, killing almost 70,000 people and causing extensive damage.
