LHASA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) — A total of 95 people have been confirmed dead and 130 others injured as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Dingri County in southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region on Tuesday morning.
The earthquake struck at 9:05 a.m. (Beijing Time), with the epicenter located in Tsogo Township, Dingri County, in the city of Xigaze. There are 27 villages and approximately 6,900 people within a 20-km radius of the epicenter. Official data shows that Dingri County has a population of over 61,000.
More than 3,400 rescuers and over 340 medical workers have been sent to the quake-hit area, according to a press conference on the earthquake.
According to the weather forecast, Dingri will experience mostly sunny weather over the next three days, with the minimum temperature ranging between minus 18 and minus 14 degrees Celsius.
China’s central authorities have dispatched some 22,000 disaster relief items to the quake-hit region, including cotton tents, winter coats, quilts and folding beds, together with special relief materials for high-altitude and frigid areas.
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management said they allocated 100 million yuan (about 13.9 million U.S. dollars) to support disaster relief efforts in Xizang. The National Development and Reform Commission also allocated 100 million yuan to support post-disaster emergency recovery.
The Red Cross Society of China has initiated an emergency response to send 4,600 items of relief supplies to the quake-affected areas, including cotton tents, quilts, insulated jackets and folding beds.
The county of Dingri lies on the northern slope of the Himalayas, bordering Nepal to the south. With an average altitude of 4,500 meters, it is home to the northern base camp of Mount Qomolangma, the world’s highest peak.
The Mount Qomolangma scenic area has been temporarily closed, and tourists and staff members are in a safe condition, according to the Dingri Culture and Tourism Bureau.
Wang Weimin, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua that aftershocks may last for a long time in the surrounding area.