Around 12 people were still missing today after the 6.2 magnitude earthquake which slowly hit her Monday night in the northwestern province of Gansu Chinawhile the interest of Internet users was attracted by speed with which operations were terminated rescue.
Chinese media reported that the search and rescue operations in Gansu were completed at 15:00 (09:00 Greek time) on Tuesday, about 15 hours after the earthquake struck a remote and mountainous area near the border between Gansu and Qinghai provinces. At this time it is not clear whether the investigations in Qinghai are continuing.
In Gansu, 115 people had been found dead as of 09:00 local time (03:00 Greek time) yesterday, Wednesday, while the injured amounted to 784, according to the authorities. Gansu has not reported any missing persons.
In neighboring Qinghai, the death toll reached 22, while 198 were injured and 12 people were missing as of last night at 20:56 local time. Over 207,000 houses were destroyed and nearly 15,000 collapsed in Gansu, affecting over 145,000 people.
Online discussions have shown that the interest of internet users turns to how much rescue efforts were quickly completed in Gansu, with many suggesting that the sub-zero temperatures were the main factor in shortening the “golden period” for finding survivors – usually 72 hours after the earthquake.
People trapped in the rubble and exposed to prolonged temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius are at risk of rapid hypothermia and may only be able to survive for five to ten hours, even if they have not been injured, local media reported, citing rescuers. “They’d be dead by the time they were found, even 24 hours is already too long. The outside temperatures areand below -10 degrees Celsius, commented a user on the Weibo platform.
Other Weibo users cited other factors, such as the area to be searched was not particularly wide and everyone has been recorded in it, which led to the rescue operations ending in less than a day.
Source: News Beast
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