This frame grab from a user-generated content (UGC) video on January 7, 2025 shows rocks on a road near the Shigatse national highway in China's Tibet after an earthquake struck the area. (Photo by UGC / AFP)
Beijing: The death toll of a powerful earthquake that struck Xigaze in the Xicang Autonomous Region in southwest China has risen to 126, in addition to 188 injured.
China's Xinhua news agency reported that civil defense teams pulled out more than thirty other dead from under the rubble of destroyed buildings, noting that debris and rubble were scattered in the streets, while many people are still trapped, while dozens of aftershocks hit the remote area in Tibet.
It noted that at least 188 people were injured, while the state-run China Central Television reported that more than a thousand homes were destroyed in the barren and remote area, and published video clips of rubble scattered in the streets and destroyed cars.
Meanwhile, the Western Theater Command said its air force immediately activated a disaster relief emergency plan, adding that a group of transport aircraft, medical aircraft, helicopters and ground troops were on standby to assist in disaster relief.
At the same time, the Western Theater Command sent a team to the affected area to coordinate rescue efforts, after the Xicang People's Armed Police Force unit deployed more than 400 officers and soldiers to the quake-hit area to assist in rescue work, while nearly 2,000 officers and soldiers from the army and armed police were stationed in Xicang to provide reinforcements.
In an earlier toll, Chinese authorities announced that 95 people had died and 130 others were injured in the quake.
