According to state media, the death toll from the magnitude 6.2 earthquake in Jishishan County, China, near the border of Gansu and Qinghai provinces has increased to 131, with around 1,000 people injured, while rescue teams search for survivors in below-freezing temperatures.

Over 150,000 homes have been damaged, while mud and landslides, and damaged power lines and other local infrastructure continue to occur “to varying degrees”.

Temperatures as low as -16C have been reported in the high-altitude area in China’s northwest region which have impeded efforts by 1,500 firefighters, 1,500 police officers, 1,000 PLA soldiers, and around 400 medics.

Residents express being too afraid to return home and spend their time huddling around firepits.

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Smaller magnitude, larger damage

One local said in a phone interview with AFP, said that his house was partly destroyed and a part of his milk tea shop was cracked wide open, “I just feel anxious, what other feelings could there be?” 

He spent the first night in a field with his wife and two children until they went to a tent settlement the next day which he said was housing about 700 people.

The Gansu Provincial Seismological Bureau stated that aftershocks of magnitude 5 were still expected to happen around the area in the coming days.

Li Haibing, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, explained that the relatively high number of casualties was in part because the earthquake was shallow. “Therefore, it has caused greater shaking and destruction, even though the magnitude was not large,” he added.

Other factors include the earthquake's mostly vertical movement, bringing more violent shaking, the low quality of buildings and the fact that it occurred in the middle of the night when most people were home, according to Li.

The remote and mountainous area houses several predominantly Muslim ethnic groups and is near some Tibetan communities. 22 towns and villages, but two of the villages suffered the worst damage, as they lie within 50km of the epicenter.