Relief arriving in quake-hit Tibet as death toll there rises to 25
Print Edition
RESCUE and relief efforts are intensifying in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region in the wake of Saturday’s earthquake in Nepal.
The death toll in Tibet from the quake rose to 25 with 117 injured, authorities said last night. More than 25,000 people were displaced and relief efforts have been thwarted by bad weather.
Rain and snow is forecast for quake-affected regions in Tibet again today, complicating rescue work, the National Meteorological Center said yesterday.
Nyalam and Gyirong counties of Xigaze City were worst affected in Tibet by the quake, with highways blocked by landslides and avalanches. A 37-kilometer highway linking Nyalam County with Zham on the Nepal border was blocked in 13 places. Rescuers yesterday said that they had cleared a 10km stretch winding through mountains.
“Aftershocks are our main concern; there is nowhere to hide,” said Gyanga Tseten, detachment head of the Xigaze fire brigade.
Eighty percent of the houses in Zham are seriously damaged and 3,500 people have been relocated, said Li Dong, deputy Party secretary of Nyalam County.
“Zham urgently needs tents, drinking water, food and medicine,” said rescue worker Captain Xu Rongfeng.
In Gyirong, the main artery that links Gyirong Town with Gyirong landport was impassable, blocked by debris from more than 20 landslides. Military helicopters dropped relief supplies to Gyirong and Nyalam yesterday afternoon.
Snow was hampering rescue efforts, with 10 centimeters falling on some roads.
More than 95 percent of houses in the worst-hit village in Rongxar Town, Tingri County, have collapsed, according to Shen Yong, who heads an army team distributing supplies.
The regional civil affairs department yesterday confirmed that 1,263 houses and one monastery had been destroyed and 10,000 houses and 54 monasteries damaged. Some 24,800 people have taken refuge in Xigaze.
More than 2,000 soldiers have been mobilized to help relief efforts. Nine military helicopters arrived in Xigaze yesterday.
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