At least 118 people have died and several hundred others have been injured after an earthquake hit northwest China’s Gansu and Qinghai provinces around midnight (local time), state media reported, as rescue teams frantically searched for survivors in the rubble.

Chinese President Xi Jinping he ordered that “every possible effort” be made to save lives and offer guarantees for the safety of survivors and their property.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.9 as estimated by the US Geological Survey (USGS), it caused extensive damage, collapsing many houses, prompting residents to take to the streets in fear, according to the official news agency New China.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in the border area of ​​Gansu and Qinghai provinces, some 1,300 kilometers southwest of Beijing. The local authorities spoke of 105 and 13 deadas well as 397 and 182 injured respectively in the two provinces.

Sixteen of the wounded in Gansu are in critical condition.

According to official figures, about 20 people are missing.

According to the USGS, the earthquake was centered in an area about a hundred kilometers southwest of Lanzhou, of the capital of Gansu Province, and was followed by several smaller aftershocks.

It took place at a relatively shallow depth, 10 kilometers from the surface, at 23:59 yesterday Monday (local time; at 17:59 Greek time), according to the US institute, which revised down its estimate of its strength — initially saying it reached 6.0 points.

The efforts of the rescue crews are hampered by bad weather in the area, where the temperatures are below zero. Most of China is hit by a wave of bad weather and low temperatures.

About 2,200 members of the fire service, 900 workers of the forest service, as well as 260 members of rescue crews are operating in the affected area, according to New China. Elements of the armed forces and the police have also been deployed in the earthquake-hit zones.

A road race against time and the cold

In the earthquake affected area, high-altitude and largely snow-covered, the thermometer was expected to reach polar levels today, as low as -14°C in places, and time is the difference between life and death for those trapped.

Usually the window of time to locate survivors after catastrophic earthquakes is up to 72 hours, but the window of opportunity is narrowing due to weather conditions.

Electricity has gradually started to be restored in some of the affected areas, as the grid operator dispatched 18 teams of technicians.

The powerful and destructive earthquakes they are rather common in China.

In August, 5.4 magnitude earthquake in eastern China resulted in the injury of 23 people and the destruction of dozens of buildings.

In September 2022, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province killed at least a hundred people.

While a 7.9 earthquake in 2008 had left behind over 87,000 dead or missing, among them 5,335 schoolboys and girls.