About 87,000 people evacuated from damaged houses in northwestern China following a major earthquake earlier this week have been struggling to cope with freezing weather, with the death toll from the disaster topping 130, local authorities and media reports said Wednesday.
The 6.2 magnitude quake, which struck at around midnight Monday in Jishishan county of China's Gansu Province, injured some 1,000 people in the region and neighboring Qinghai, where at least a dozen residents remain missing.
To keep evacuees warm as temperatures fell below minus 10 C, local authorities in Gansu have provided shelters with some 7,000 items of heating equipment, such as coal-fired stoves. Thousands of houses have been destroyed, with infrastructure related to water, electricity and roads damaged.
A 66-year-old local resident in Jishishan said she moved to a tent with six members of her family because their home was ruined and they could not secure water. "I'm afraid of aftershocks," she said.
Zhao Dengcai, 40, who lives in a community near a shelter, said the wall of his house was cracked and that he was using a blanket to try to keep warm while sleeping amid a power outage caused by the quake. "I cannot think about what I should do now," he said.
The Chinese government has earmarked 250 million yuan ($35 million) for quake-hit areas to support emergency restoration and construction of infrastructure as well as public service facilities, while the ruling Communist Party decided to offer 100 million yuan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Wednesday that a number of countries, including Russia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy and Cambodia, have offered their condolences over the deadly quake, and he expressed Beijing's "heartfelt appreciation" for them.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin indicated Moscow's willingness to provide rescue assistance during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
But the Chinese leader said the number of rescuers and supplies in the quake-hit areas are "sufficient" at present, adding that under the strong leadership of the party, those affected will "surely overcome the disaster and rebuild their homes," according to the ministry.
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M6.2 quake in northwestern China leaves nearly 130 dead
