(TibetanReview.net, Jan09’25) –As Chinese authorities called of search for survivors from the devastating earthquake just a day after it hit Dingri County near Mt Everest in southern Tibet’s Shigatse city on Jan 7 morning, the official figures have remained unchanged at 126 deaths, 188 injured.
However, authorities have yet to say how many people remain missing, which could provide a measure of how many may have actually died.
Those trapped under the rubble are likely to have succumbed to hypothermia, with temperatures dropping to as low as zero degrees Fahrenheit at night, noted Reuters Jan 9.
The State Council Information Office, which handles media requests for the central government, did not respond to a request for comment on this matter, the report said.
As of 6 am Thursday (Jan 9), 61,500 people were affected by the earthquake. So far, a total of 224 resettlement sites have been set up for 47,500 relocated residents, with their basic living needs ensured, reported China’s official Xinhua News agency Jan 9, citing an official press conference.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,211 aftershocks had been detected as of 3 pm Thursday (Jan 9) after the 6.8-magnitude earthquake of the day before, the report said, citing local authorities.
The report also said 484 tourists in Dingri, including 13 non-Chinese foreigners, had all returned to the city of Shigatse.
An official named Hao Tao told a press conference Jan 9 that officials were still assessing the scope of the disaster, which damaged four reservoirs, as well as the scale of losses, said another Reuters report Jan 9.
The quake, which shook buildings as far away as Nepal and India, reduced to rubble more than 3,600 homes in Dingri and damaged 27,000 more at an average elevation of more than 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), the report said.
In the worst hit villages, 80-90% of houses had collapsed, reported the lemonde.fr Jan 8.
The rescue was stated to be focused on 27 villages – home to 7,000 people – spread 20 km (12 miles) around the earthquake’s epicentre Tsogo Town.
The earthquake was so strong that it caused part of the terrain around the epicentre to slip as much as 1.6 m (5 ft) over a distance of 80 km (50 miles), according to an analysis by the United States Geological Survey which measured its magnitude at 7.1.