More aid reaches Tibet quake victims as mercury plunges

Newly-erected aid tents amid collapsed buildings in Cuoguo township, China’s Tibet region. Pic/AFP

Rescuers in the freezing, high-altitude Tibet region in western China searched a second day for any remaining victims of a deadly earthquake that struck near a holy city for Tibetan Buddhists, before shifting their focus to resettling the survivors. More tents, quilts, stoves and other relief items were being delivered on Wednesday to people whose homes were uninhabitable or unsafe. Temperatures fall well below freezing overnight in an area with an average altitude of about 13,800 feet.

In video aired by state broadcaster CCTV, workers could be seen erecting rows of tents with metal frames and stakes after nightfall on Tuesday. Meant as temporary shelter, they were lined with quilted padding to keep out the cold. The workers distributed packaged food items to the shelter occupants, donning blue winter jackets over their orange uniforms.

The confirmed death toll stood at 126 with another 188 injured as of Tuesday evening, and no further updates were issued during the day on Wednesday. Hong Li, the director of Tibet's Emergency Management Department, told a late afternoon news conference that the work had shifted from search and rescue to resettlement and reconstruction.

The earthquake struck an outlying county in the city of Shigatse, the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism. More than 500 aftershocks were recorded after the earthquake, which the US Geological Survey said measured magnitude 7.1. China's earthquake center recorded a magnitude of 6.8. The quake was also about 75 km from Mount Everest and the border with Nepal.

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