President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday expressed sympathy to those affected by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck China’s Sichuan Province the previous day, as fire officials said that a rescue team is prepared to help.
The death toll from the strongest earthquake to hit Sichuan since 2017 rose to 66 yesterday, and more than 250 people were injured in the disaster, Chinese state media said.
Apart from voicing concern over those who were killed or injured in the disaster and their family members, the president hopes for a quick recovery and a return to normal life there, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.
Photo: AFP
No Taiwanese nationals have been hurt or stranded in Sichuan, and the president has asked the Mainland Affairs Council and related government agencies to closely monitor the situation, he added.
The National Fire Agency said in a statement that it has assembled a rescue team of 40 people, one search dog and 5 tonnes of equipment that could immediately leave upon instruction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the council, adding that it was “committed to the spirit of humanitarian care and disaster relief without borders.”
China has not said whether it would allow in overseas teams to help with search-and-rescue operations.
At the site of the earthquake, Chinese firefighters yesterday worked in treacherous terrain to help evacuate more than 11,000 people.
State media footage, taken at the epicenter in Luding County, showed firefighters stretchering an injured person across a makeshift bridge built with tree trunks as muddy torrents raged below them.
Evacuees who could walk followed a trail of scree alongside the river abutting slopes stripped of soil cover by Monday’s quake. Some of them were clutching onto their belongings while others carried injured people on their backs, a video from local media showed.
In another video, firefighters were seen carrying a woman on a stretcher, covered in dust and missing a shoe, out from a dangerously teetering four-story wooden building.
As rescuers tried to reach stranded people, restore utilities and send emergency relief, state media reported 11,000 people had been evacuated from the area.
Authorities had identified about 500 potential geological hazards, reports said, referring to landslides and collapsed mountain roads.
State television reported that more than 200 people were still stranded in Hailuogou, a popular tourist spot known for its glaciers, verdant forests and soaring peaks. Rescuers were working to reopen roads to reach them.
In Luding, power and water infrastructure and telecommunications were severely damaged, state television said.
It also reported that 243 houses had collapsed and 13,010 had been damaged. Four hotels and hundreds of tourist lodgings were also affected.
The quake cut power to several towns, while various highways collapsed and seven small-to-mid-sized hydropower stations were damaged.
With heavy rains expected over the next three days, experts yesterday flagged risks posed by a number of dammed lakes that have formed after the quake.
Authorities were considering using drones to inspect the situation upstream of Wandong River, the main tributary of the Dadu River.
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