Indian court orders release of two arrested Vivo employees
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian court on Saturday ordered the release of two senior employees working for Chinese smartphone maker Vivo’s India unit.
The Enforcement Directorate, India’s financial crime-fighting agency, this month arrested two executives – Hong Xuquan, a Chinese national and Harinder Dahiya – working for Vivo’s Indian unit in a case of alleged money laundering.
Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi; writing by Mayank Bhardwaj, Editing by William Maclean
Ukraine death toll after massive Russian air attack rises to 39
KYIV (Reuters) – The death toll from Russia’s largest air attack on Ukraine rose to 39 on Saturday as rescuers continued to clear debris and rubble from the bombardment, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Russia launched 158 missiles and drones on cities and towns across Ukraine on Friday in what Ukrainian officials described as the worst aerial bombardment since the start of the war in February 2022.
“Works to clear up the consequences of yesterday’s Russian attack are still underway. Almost 120 cities and villages, hundreds of civilian objects have suffered,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
Zelenskiy said 39 people were killed and 159 injured in the strikes that involved different types of ballistic and cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones. Ukrainian air defence said it shot down 87 Russian missiles and over 30 drones.
The most extensive airborne assault since Russia’s invasion in February 2022
In the capital Kyiv, at least 16 people were killed, the largest civilian death toll in the city during nearly 22 months of the war, said mayor Vitali Klitschko. The city announced a day of mourning for the victims on Jan.
Klitschko said rescuers were continuing to pick through rubble in Kyiv where a warehouse and several residential and commercial buildings were hit.
Rescue efforts continued in other cities and villages in the centre, south, and west of the country, local officials said. Local authorities raced to help repair thousands of smashed windows in residential buildings and to restore heating.
The weather is unseasonably warm in most of Ukraine with temperatures hovering around 4 Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) but forecasters expect a dip to zero later in the week.
Reporting by Olena Harmash; editing by Christina Fincher
After serving jail term over security law, a Hong Kong pro-independence activist seeks asylum in UK
HONG KONG (AP) — An activist who advocated for Hong Kong independence and was jailed under a sweeping national security law fled to Britain to seek political asylum, according to his social media posts Friday.
Tony Chung was among the first convicted under the Beijing-imposed law that was introduced after the 2019 pro-democracy protests. He was found guilty of secession and money laundering in 2020 and sentenced to 43 months in prison.
The intimidation faced by Hong Kong dissidents like Chung reflects the drastic erosion of the freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to China in 1997. But both Beijing and Hong Kong have hailed the security law for bringing stability to the city.
In two Instagram posts Friday, Chung detailed how he was under a supervision order after his release from prison. He wrote that he was banned from public speaking. Separately, he was asked to meet with national security authorities regularly and report to them his whereabouts, people he met and conversations had.
He added that he was blocked from taking up a specific summer job, effectively stripping him of financial autonomy and paving the way for the financial inducements later offered by the national security authorities. They offered to pay him for information on others to prove he had reformed himself, he wrote, and wanted him to go to mainland China.
Chung said he was made to sign a document that barred him from disclosing his conversations with the authorities, so he could not seek help from any lawyers nor tell anyone about his situation.
“Under enormous stress and fear, I can only endure silently,” he said.
He started getting sick in October at times and doctors told him his immune system was compromised due to massive mental stress, he said in his posts. He later persuaded correctional services authorities to let him travel to Okinawa, Japan, for a holiday to manage his emotions. During the trip, he sought help from organizations and people based overseas. He arrived in Britain from Japan on Wednesday to seek asylum.
“This also means I can no longer return to my home, Hong Kong, in foreseeable future,” he said. “Although I had anticipated the arrival of this day in the past, I had a heavy heart when I made up my mind.”
Chung was convenor of the now-dissolved pro-independence student organization Studentlocalism before being arrested in 2020 near the United States consulate in Hong Kong, where media reports said he was hoping to seek protection.
In a press conference, Leung Kin-ip, Hong Kong’s deputy commissioner of the Correctional Services Department, condemned Chung for “evading responsibility” and publishing comments “endangering national security.” He said a recall order has been issued for Chung to be brought back to prison to serve his remaining sentence. The department also instructed other enforcement agencies to put him on a wanted list.
Leung said Chung was required to let them know if he left Hong Kong and the duration of his travels but was not restricted from leaving the territory.
“This is a breach of trust. He lied to us that he would travel. This is very bad,” he said.
In response to questions about Chung being blocked from taking up the summer job, Leung said officers were allowed to impose restrictions if they deemed a person might repeat his crime as the department focused on rehabilitation needs. He insisted the department suggested other part-time jobs to Chung. Leung said that his department didn’t violate the right to freedom of speech.
Hong Kong police did not immediately reply to The Associated Press’ request for comment.
The city’s security apparatus has been trying to find information about several dissidents. Hong Kong police offered rewards for data leading to the arrests of 13 overseas-based activities and drew criticism from Western governments.
Earlier in December, prominent pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow, who left Hong Kong for Canada and doesn’t plan to return to fulfill her bail conditions, reported similar pressure from authorities. Her passport, confiscated earlier by police, was only returned to her upon meeting certain conditions, including a visit to mainland China with authorities, she said.
In an email reply to the AP, Hong Kong police said Friday that Chow failed to show up at a police station Thursday as required and violated her bail terms, pledging they would “spare no effort in bringing her to justice.” Local media, including the South China Morning Post, quoted unnamed sources saying that her parents went to a police station to assist in their investigation Friday.
Now in Britain, Chung said he would devote himself to his city as a “Hong Konger in exile.”
“I believe only when Hong Kong people don’t give up, the seeds of freedom and democracy will sprout again one day,” he said.
Officials say Russia has launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 30 civilians across the country in what an air force official called the biggest aerial barrage of the war.
At least 144 people were wounded and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officials said. A maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools were among the buildings reported damaged across Ukraine.
In the capital, Kyiv, broken glass and mangled metal littered city streets. Air raid and emergency service sirens wailed as plumes of smoke drifted into a bright blue sky.
Kateryna Ivanivna, a 72-year-old Kyiv resident, said she threw herself to the ground when a missile struck.
“There was an explosion, then flames,” she said. “I covered my head and got down in the street. Then I ran into the subway station.”
Meanwhile, in Poland, authorities said that what apparently was a Russian missile had entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars.
In the attack on Ukraine, the air force intercepted most of the ballistic and cruise missiles and the Shahed-type drones overnight, said Ukraine’s military chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
The most extensive airborne assault since Russia’s invasion in February 2022
Western officials and analysts had recently warned that Russia limited its cruise missile strikes for months in an apparent effort to build up stockpiles for massive strikes during the winter, hoping to break the Ukrainians’ spirit.
The result was “the most massive aerial attack” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his official Telegram channel. It topped the previous biggest assault, in November 2022 when Russia launched 96 missiles, and this year’s biggest, with 81 missiles on March 9, according to air force records.
Fighting along the front line is largely bogged down by winter weather after Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) line of contact.
Ukrainian officials have urged the country’s Western allies to provide it with more air defenses. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.
The United States and the United Kingdom denounce Russia’s assault
President Joe Biden said the bombardment showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “must be stopped.”
“The American people can be proud of the lives we have helped to save and the support we have given Ukraine as it defends its people, its freedom, and its independence,” he said.
“But unless Congress takes urgent action in the new year, we will not be able to continue sending the weapons and vital air defense systems Ukraine needs to protect its people. Congress must step up and act without any further delay,” he said in a statement.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the attack should stir the world to further action in support of Ukraine.
“These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy,” Sunak said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “We must continue to stand with Ukraine — for as long as it takes.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the scale of the attack should wake people up to Ukraine’s continuing needs.
“Today, millions of Ukrainians awoke to the loud sound of explosions,” he wrote on X. “I wish those sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard all around the world. In all major capitals, headquarters, and parliaments, which are currently debating further support for Ukraine.”
Six cities in Ukraine came under attack
In Kyiv, the bombardment damaged a subway station that lies across the street from a factory belonging to the Artem company, which produces components for various military-grade missiles. Officials did not say whether the factory was directly hit.
Overall, the attack hit six cities, and reports of deaths and damage came in from across the country. Several dozen missiles were launched towards Kyiv, with more than 30 intercepted, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration. Eight people were killed there, officials said.
In Boyarka, near Kyiv, the debris of a shot-down drone fell on a home and started a fire. Andrii Korobka, 47, said his mother was sleeping next to the room where the wreckage landed and was taken to hospital suffering from shock.
“The war goes on, and it can happen to any house, even if you think yours will never be affected,” Korobka said.
Tetiana Sakhnenko lives next door and said neighbors ran with buckets of water to put out the blaze, but it spread quickly. “It’s so scary,” she said.
In the eastern city of Dnipro, four maternity hospital patients were rescued from a fire, five people were killed and 20 injured, officials said.
In Odesa, on the southern coast, falling drone wreckage started a fire at a multistory residential building, according to the regional head, Oleh Kiper. Two people were killed and 15, including two children, were injured, he said.
The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi, said one person was killed there, with three schools and a kindergarten damaged in a drone attack. Local emergency services said 30 people were injured.
In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was subjected to at least three waves of aerial attacks that included S-300 and Kh-21 missile launches. One person was killed and at least nine injured, officials said.
Associated Press reporter Dmytro Zhyhinas contributed to this story.
Some Muslims around major India temple fearful ahead of opening
AYODHYA, India (Reuters) – Like many other Muslims, Indian tailor Safi Mohammad plans to send his wife and two sons away before thousands of pilgrims arrive at his hometown of Ayodhya next month for the inauguration of one of Hinduism’s most sacred temples.
The temple, built on a site Hindus believe to be the birthplace of Lord Ram and where a Mughal-era mosque once stood, stirs bitter memories for Mohammad. The 38-year-old said he remembers when a Hindu mob destroyed the Babri mosque in December 1992, sparking religious riots across the country that killed nearly 2,000 people, most of them Muslims. The dead included his uncle.
“My family has gone through a lot already,” he said as he worked at his sewing machine in his home, located a few metres away from the temple. “Anything can happen anytime.”
Ayodhya, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, is home to some 3 million people, including 500,000 Muslims.
Officials say at least one-tenth of these Muslims live in the immediate vicinity of the newly built Ram Temple, and some of these residents said they are still fearful of Hindus, especially visitors, because any incident could potentially escalate into a major event.
At least a dozen Muslim men said they too planned to send their families to relatives outside the city ahead of the temple’s opening ceremony which is due to take place on Jan. 22.
“We cannot say what will happen around the opening – people in the community are a bit fearful,” said Parvez Ahmad Qasmi, who runs an Islamic school in Ayodhya and lost his father-in-law to the riots that occurred more than three decades ago.
Even as some of the residents around the temple expressed apprehension, several Ayodhya Muslims said there had not been any major violence under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also rules Uttar Pradesh, adding that the boost to the local economy from the pilgrims would help them too.
The Ram temple is expected to boost the chances of the Hindu nationalist BJP at next year’s general elections, as it fulfills one of its main campaign promises. Modi himself will inaugurate the temple more than four years after the Supreme Court ended a dispute over the site and awarded it to Hindu groups.
MASS PILGRIMAGE
Sharad Sharma, a Hindu, said everyone in Ayodhya would benefit from the temple and the pilgrims who visit.
“Ayodhya is now a new city which will be an example of communal harmony,” Sharma said. “There has not been any violence or unease in the last decade.”
Officials expect Ayodhya to receive 4.5 million Hindu pilgrims a month. Some Muslims said the sheer number of visitors makes them worry about their safety.
“It’s up to the government what kind of security will be provided to the Muslims with so many people from outside visiting,” said resident Haji Acchan Khan, 62.
Ayodhya police chief Raj Karan Nayyar said the authorities would bring in reinforcements, which would be “sufficient to ensure the security of every person, not just one community”.
The court order that allowed for the construction of the Ram temple also said authorities must set aside land for a mosque, and construction on that site, about 15 miles (24 km) from the Ram temple, is expected to start next year.
A recent boom in property prices in Ayodhya ahead of the pilgrimage has, however, driven some people to try and illegally grab land allocated to other mosques and even Muslim cemeteries, Mohd Azam Qadri, a leader of the Muslim Sunni Central Waqf Board, said in a letter to local authorities this month.
Ayodhya District Magistrate Nitish Kumar, however, said he had not received complaints about land grabs but said: “in case they come to us … we will look into the matter and take action accordingly”.
Kuwait’s new emir sworn in, demands comprehensive review, After swearing the constitutional oath in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Sheikh Meshal criticised the authorities’ decision to appoint people to positions “that are not consistent with the simplest rules of justice and fairness”.
By Ahmed Hagagy
KUWAIT (Reuters) – Kuwait’s new emir, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, forcefully castigated lawmakers and executive authorities on Wednesday for what he said was harm to the interests of the country and the people in his first remarks after he was formally sworn in.
After swearing the constitutional oath in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Sheikh Meshal criticised the authorities’ decision to appoint people to positions “that are not consistent with the simplest rules of justice and fairness”.
He also objected to the pardoning of several convicts and opposition figures, and the damaging of the Kuwaiti identity.
The emir said it was “necessary to review our current reality, especially in terms of security, the economy and living conditions”.
He stressed “the importance of follow-up, responsible oversight, and objective accountability within the framework of the constitution and the law for negligence, dereliction and tampering with the interests of citizens.”
Kuwait will maintain its Gulf, regional and international commitments, Sheikh Meshal said.
Sheikh Meshal, 83, was Kuwait’s day-to-day ruler during much of his half-brother Sheikh Nawaf’s reign due to his ill-health. His predecessor died on Saturday.
Reporting by Ahmed Haggagy in Kuwait, Ahmed Elimam, Clauda Tanios and Nayera Abdallah in Dubai; Writing by Yousef Saba; Editing by Jason Neely and Alison Williams
UN Security Council in intense negotiations on Gaza humanitarian resolution, trying to avoid US veto
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Security Council members were in intense negotiations Tuesday on an Arab-sponsored resolution to spur desperately needed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza during some kind of a halt in the fighting, trying to avoid another veto by the United States.
U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters Tuesday morning that negotiations were still underway. Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the 15-member council, said she hoped the council could vote on a resolution early Tuesday afternoon.
The council had scheduled a vote late Monday afternoon, but it was postponed to try to get the U.S. to support the resolution or abstain.
The U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution backed by almost all other council members and dozens of other nations demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. The 193-member General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a similar resolution on Dec. 12 by a vote of 153-10, with 23 abstentions.
The draft resolution on the table Monday morning called for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” but this language is expected to be watered down in a final draft, possibly to a “suspension” of hostilities or something weaker to get U.S. support, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations have been private.
Security Council resolutions are important because they are legally binding, but in practice many parties choose to ignore the council’s requests for action. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they are a significant barometer of world opinion.
The draft resolution that was being considered by the 15 council members Monday morning recognized that civilians in Gaza don’t have access to sufficient food, water, sanitation, electricity, telecommunications and medical services “essential for their survival.” And it expressed the council’s “strong concern for the disproportionate effect that the conflict is having on the lives and well-being of children, women and other civilians in vulnerable situations.”
Nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry since Israel declared war on Hamas following its surprise attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and took about 240 hostages back to Gaza.
Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and its Health Ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Thousands more Palestinians lie buried under the rubble of Gaza, the U.N. estimates.
At least 100 elephants die in drought-stricken Zimbabwe park, a grim sign of El Nino, climate change
BY FARAI MUTSAKA
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — At least 100 elephants have died in Zimbabwe’s largest national park in recent weeks because of drought, their carcasses a grisly sign of what wildlife authorities and conservation groups say is the impact of climate change and the El Nino weather phenomenon.
Authorities warn that more could die as forecasts suggest a scarcity of rains and rising heat in parts of the southern African nation including Hwange National Park. The International Fund for Animal Welfare has described it as a crisis for elephants and other animals.
“El Nino is making an already dire situation worse,” said Tinashe Farawo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
El Nino is a natural and recurring weather phenomenon that warms parts of the Pacific, affecting weather patterns around the world. While this year’s El Nino brought deadly floods to East Africa recently, it is expected to cause below-average rainfall across southern Africa.
That has already been felt in Zimbabwe, where the rainy season began weeks later than usual. While some rain has now fallen, the forecasts are generally for a dry, hot summer ahead.
Studies indicate that climate change may be making El Ninos stronger, leading to more extreme consequences.
Authorities fear a repeat of 2019, when more than 200 elephants in Hwange died in a severe drought.
“This phenomenon is recurring,” said Phillip Kuvawoga, a landscape program director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which raised the alarm for Hwange’s elephants in a report this month.
Parks agency spokesperson Farawo posted a video on social media site X, formerly Twitter, showing a young elephant struggling for its life after becoming stuck in mud in a water hole that had partly dried up in Hwange.
“The most affected elephants are the young, elderly and sick that can’t travel long distances to find water,” Farawo said. He said an average-sized elephant needs a daily water intake of about 200 liters (52 gallons) .
Park rangers remove the tusks from dead elephants where they can for safekeeping and so the carcasses don’t attract poachers.
Hwange is home to around 45,000 elephants along with more than 100 other mammal species and 400 bird species.
Zimbabwe’s rainy season once started reliably in October and ran through to March. It has become erratic in recent years and conservationists have noticed longer, more severe dry spells.
“Our region will have significantly less rainfall, so the dry spell could return soon because of El Nino,” said Trevor Lane, director of The Bhejane Trust, a conservation group which assists Zimbabwe’s parks agency.
He said his organization has been pumping 1.5 million liters of water into Hwange’s waterholes daily from over 50 boreholes it manages in partnership with the parks agency. The 14,500-square-kilometer (5,600-square-mile) park, which doesn’t have a major river flowing through it, has just over 100 solar-powered boreholes that pump water for the animals.
Saving elephants is not just for the animals’ sake, conservationists say. They are a key ally in fighting climate change through the ecosystem by dispersing vegetation over long distances through dung that contains plant seeds, enabling forests to spread, regenerate and flourish. Trees suck planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
“They perform a far bigger role than humans in reforestation,” Lane said. “That is one of the reasons we fight to keep elephants alive.”
NEW DELHI – Gautam Dongre’s two children in India and Pascazia Mazeze’s son in Tanzania grapple with an inherited blood disorder that transforms blood cells into agents of pain.
With the advent of new gene therapies offering a potential cure for sickle cell disease, Dongre expresses hope, saying, “I’m praying the treatment should come to us.”
However, experts highlight that the one-time treatment remains unattainable in India and Africa, where the disease is most prevalent. Widespread disparities sever much of the world from gene therapy in general.
While access to various medications is restricted in developing nations, the challenge becomes particularly pronounced with these therapies, known as some of the most expensive treatments globally.
Beyond their sky-high prices, these therapies are extremely complex to give patients because they require long hospitalizations, sophisticated medical equipment and specially trained doctors and scientists. So far, the two gene therapies for sickle cell have only been approved in wealthier countries: both of them in the U.S., and one in Britain and Bahrain as well.
“The vast, vast majority of patients live in an area where they have no access to this kind of therapy,” said Dr. Benjamin Watkins, who treats sickle cell in New Orleans and is also involved in pediatric work internationally. “We as medical professionals, and as a society, have to think about that.”
Access to gene therapies was a major focus of this year’s international summit on human genome editing in London. A subsequent editorial in the journal Nature said high prices leave low- and middle-income countries “entirely in the lurch” and could stymie progress across the field.
Some scientists worry that new cures won’t reach their potential, future treatments may never be invented and the prospect of wiping out diseases like sickle cell will remain a distant dream.
SSTRUGGLING FOR BASIC TREATMENT
For gene therapy to even be an option, people in developing nations must stay alive long enough to get it. There, sickle cell disease is more likely to disable or kill than in wealthy regions. Late diagnosis is common and basic care can be hard to come by.
While gene therapy “is a huge leap forward … we can’t forget about those patients,” said Watkins, of Children’s Hospital New Orleans.
Sickle cell disease begins its assault on the body at birth, affecting hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A genetic mutation causes the cells to become crescent-shaped, which can block blood flow and cause problems such as excruciating pain, organ damage and stroke.
The only other cure is a bone marrow transplant, which must come from a closely matched donor and brings a risk of rejection.
Global estimates of how many people have the disease vary, but some researchers put the number between 6 million and 8 million. It’s more common in malaria-prone regions because carrying the sickle cell trait helps protect against severe malaria. More than 1 million people with sickle cell disease live in India, studies show, and more than 5 million are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dongre, who lives in Nagpur in central India, has seen the struggles in his own family and among people he’s met as a leader in the National Alliance of Sickle Cell Organizations in India. For many years, awareness of the disease has been lacking, he said, even among some health professionals.
Dongre recalled how his newborn son Girish cried constantly from stomach and leg pain. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong and didn’t diagnose him with sickle cell for 2 1/2 years. When their daughter Sumedha was born, he and his wife had her tested immediately and learned she had the disease too.
Other patients go undiagnosed for a decade or more. Lalit Pargi, who lives in Udaipur in northern India, said he wasn’t diagnosed until he was 16 despite having the tell-tale yellow eyes and skin of jaundice, a common sign of sickle cell. That meant a childhood filled with inexplicable pain.
Earthquake in northwestern China, The country’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that left nearly 90,000 dead or presumed dead and devastated towns and schools in Sichuan province, leading to a yearslong effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
BY KEN MORITSUGU
BEIJING (AP) — A strong overnight earthquake rattled a mountainous region of northwestern China, authorities said Tuesday, destroying homes, leaving residents out in a below-freezing winter night and killing 127 people in the nation’s deadliest quake in nine years.
The magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck just before midnight on Monday, injuring more than 700 people, damaging roads and knocking out power and communication lines in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, officials and Chinese media reports said.
As emergency workers searched for the missing in collapsed buildings and at least one landslide, people who lost their homes were preparing to spend a cold winter night in tents at hastily erected evacuation sites.
“I just feel anxious, what other feelings could there be?” said Ma Dongdong, who said in a phone interview that three bedrooms in his house had been destroyed and a part of his milk tea shop was cracked wide open.
Afraid to return home because of aftershocks, he spent the night in a field with his wife, two children and some neighbors, where they made a fire to stay warm. In the early morning, they went to a tent settlement that Ma said was housing about 700 people. As of mid-afternoon, they were waiting for blankets and warm clothing to arrive.
The earthquake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) in Gansu’s Jishishan county, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the provincial boundary with Qinghai, the China Earthquake Networks Center said. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the magnitude at 5.9.
State broadcaster CCTV said 113 were confirmed dead in Gansu and another 536 injured in the province. Fourteen others were killed and 198 injured in Qinghai, in an area north of the epicenter, according to the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece.
President #XiJinping has urged all-out search and rescue efforts and proper arrangements for affected people to ensure the safety of people's lives and property after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Jishishan County in northwest China's Gansu Province at midnight Monday.… pic.twitter.com/cHnvtgCa9i
There were nine aftershocks measuring magnitude 3.0 or higher by 10 a.m. — about 10 hours after the initial earthquake — the largest one registering a magnitude of 4.1, officials said. Emergency authorities in Gansu issued an appeal for 300 additional workers for search and rescue operations, and Qinghai officials reported 20 people missing in a landslide, according to Chinese state-owned media. The earthquake was felt in much of the surrounding area, including Lanzhou, the Gansu provincial capital, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the epicenter. Photos and videos posted by a student at Lanzhou University showed students hastily leaving a dormitory building and standing outside with long down jackets over their pajamas.
“The earthquake was too intense,” said Wang Xi, the student who posted the images. “My legs went weak, especially when we ran downstairs from the dormitory.” The death toll was the highest since an August 2014 quake that killed 617 people in southwest China’s Yunnan province. The country’s deadliest earthquake in recent years was a 7.9 magnitude quake in 2008 that left nearly 90,000 dead or presumed dead and devastated towns and schools in Sichuan province, leading to a yearslong effort to rebuild with more resistant materials.
Li Haibing, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said that the relatively high number of casualties in the latest quake was in part because it was shallow. “Therefore, it has caused greater shaking and destruction, even though the magnitude was not large,” he said.
Other factors include the quake’s mainly vertical movement, which causes more violent shaking; the lower quality of buildings in what is a relatively poor area, and the fact that it happened in the middle of the night when most people were home, Li said.
The epicenter was about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) southwest of Beijing, the Chinese capital. The remote and mountainous area is home to several predominantly Muslim ethnic groups and near some Tibetan communities. Geographically, it is in the center of China, though the area is commonly referred to as the northwest, as it is at the northwestern edge of China’s more populated plains.
Tents, folding beds and quilts were being sent to the disaster area, state broadcaster CCTV said. It quoted Chinese leader Xi Jinping as calling for an all-out search and rescue effort to minimize the casualties.
The overnight low in the area was minus 15 to minus 9 degrees Celsius (5 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit), the China Meteorological Administration said. The Beijing Youth Daily, a Communist Party newspaper, quoted an unnamed rescue coordinator saying there was a need for generators, long coats and fuel for stoves, among other items. The coordinator recommended sending halal food because of the ethnic makeup of the affected population.
At least 4,000 firefighters, soldiers and police officers were dispatched in the rescue effort, and the People’s Liberation Army Western Theatre set up a command post to direct its work.
A video posted by the Ministry of Emergency Management showed emergency workers in orange uniforms using rods to try to move heavy pieces of what looked like concrete debris at night. Other nighttime videos distributed by state media showed workers lifting out a victim and helping a slightly stumbling person to walk in an area covered with light snow.
Two residents of Jishishan county told The Associated Press that there were cracks in their walls but that their buildings did not collapse. They were unsure whether it was safe to stay in their homes and figuring out where to spend the night.
Middle school student Ma Shijun ran out of his dormitory barefoot without even putting on a coat, according to a Xinhua report. It said the strong tremors left his hands a bit numb, and that teachers quickly organized the students on the playground.
Earthquakes are somewhat common in the mountainous area of western China that rises up to form the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.
In September 2022, 93 people were killed in a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that shook China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, triggering landslides and shaking buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, where 21 million residents were under a COVID-19 lockdown.
Associated Press researchers Wanqing Chen and Yu Bing contributed to this report.
