AFP

At least 30 people were killed when a strong earthquake struck southwestern China on Monday, state media reported, as violent tremors in a remote region damaged homes and left some areas without electricity.

The magnitude 6.6 quake hit about 43 kilometres (26 miles) southeast of the city of Kangding in Sichuan province at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.

The death toll now stands at “more than 30 dead”, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Tremors shook buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu — where millions are confined to their homes under a strict Covid lockdown — and in the nearby megacity of Chongqing, local residents told AFP.

“I felt it quite strongly. Some of my neighbours on the ground floor said they felt it very noticeably,” said Chen, a resident of Chengdu.

“But because Chengdu is currently under epidemic management, people aren’t allowed to leave their residential compounds, so many of them rushed out into their courtyards,” she added.

At least one town had suffered “severe damage” from landslides triggered by the quake, CCTV reported.

A road to another town was blocked and telecommunications lines in areas home to more than 10,000 people were severed, the broadcaster said, adding that shocks also forced some power stations offline in the areas of Garze and Ya’an.

Footage broadcast by CCTV appeared to show damaged buildings and a street strewn with fallen masonry in Garze.

A video posted online by the China Earthquake Networks Center showed boulders thundering down mountainsides in Luding county, kicking up clouds of dust as tremors swayed roadside telephone wires.

State media reported that several aftershocks were recorded in nearby areas. A smaller magnitude 4.6 tremor hit eastern Tibet less than an hour after the initial quake, according to the USGS.

Hundreds of rescue workers were dispatched to the epicentre, CCTV reported, alongside footage of firefighters in orange jumpsuits boarding trucks and navigating a highway littered with rocks and other debris.

The Sichuan seismological authority said more than 1,000 soldiers had been sent to help rescue workers.

Authorities also sent thousands of tents, blankets and foldable beds to the affected areas, according to the broadcaster.

Other state media photos showed officials in military fatigues heaving shovels and other equipment along a highway — all while wearing face masks as a Covid precaution.

President Xi Jinping called for local authorities to “make saving lives the first priority, go all out to rescue people in disaster-stricken areas, and minimise loss of life,” according to CCTV.

A resident of Chongqing said the quake was “pretty noticeable” and that it had shaken the lights and furniture in his fifth-floor apartment.

“I was pretty scared,” he told AFP, “but it didn’t seem to faze people here.”

– Summer of extremes –

Earthquakes are fairly common in China, especially in the country’s seismically active southwest.

A magnitude 8.0 quake in 2008 in Sichuan’s Wenchuan county left tens of thousands dead and caused enormous damage.

At least four people were killed and dozens more injured after two earthquakes in southwestern China in June.

That month a shallow 6.1-magnitude shock hit a sparsely populated area about 100 kilometres west of Chengdu.

It was followed three minutes later by a second quake of magnitude 4.5 in a nearby county, where the deaths and injuries occurred.

Authorities in Chengdu extended the city’s lockdown on Sunday as they fight a Covid flare-up with hundreds of cases.

The region has also suffered a summer of extreme weather, with a record-breaking heatwave noticeably drying rivers in Chongqing.

Floods blamed on shoddy infrastructure crippled Indian IT hub Bangalore on Monday, with employees in the huge tech sector told to work from home and dozens of areas reportedly left without drinking water.

The southern metropolis of around 8.5 million people boomed in the 1990s, with its myriad outsourcing and software companies now employing millions in the “back office of the world”.

But the city’s companies have complained that infrastructure development has not kept up, with perennial traffic jams and unplanned construction on the dried-up beds of lakes leading to frequent flooding even after moderate rainfall.

On Monday large parts of the city were under water, with authorities deploying rubber dinghies to ferry people around and footage on social media showing tractors being used to transport travellers from the airport.

The umbrella group for the IT sector, the Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA), advised employees to work from home while many schools and colleges were shut.

The supply of drinking water to more than 50 areas of the city was halted for two days after a pumping station was inundated, media reports said, as more rain was forecast.

“Honestly, the traffic situation in Bangalore is always bad but this is now another level,” said one back-office employer for food delivery company Swiggy, requesting to stay anonymous.

“It’s worse than ever before because of how many people have rushed back to the city after Covid. The infrastructure can’t take the strain,” he told AFP.

str-ash-ng-stu/dva

At least 21 people were killed when a strong earthquake struck southwestern China on Monday, state media reported, as violent tremors in a remote region damaged homes and left some areas without electricity.

The magnitude 6.6 quake hit about 43 kilometres (26 miles) southeast of the city of Kangding in Sichuan province at a depth of 10 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.

Fourteen people lost their lives in Sichuan’s Shimian county and seven died in nearby Luding county, while more than 30 were injured, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Tremors shook buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu — where millions are confined to their homes under a strict Covid lockdown — and in the nearby megacity of Chongqing, local residents told AFP.

“I felt it quite strongly. Some of my neighbours on the ground floor said they felt it very noticeably,” said Chen, a resident of Chengdu.

“But because Chengdu is currently under epidemic management, people aren’t allowed to leave their residential compounds, so many of them rushed out into their courtyards,” she added.

At least one town had suffered “severe damage” from mountain landslides triggered by the quake, CCTV reported.

A road to another town was blocked and telecommunications lines in areas home to more than 10,000 people were severed, the broadcaster said, adding that shocks also forced some power stations offline in the areas of Garze and Ya’an.

Footage broadcast by CCTV appeared to show damaged buildings and a street strewn with fallen masonry in Garze.

A video posted online by the China Earthquake Networks Center showed boulders thundering down mountainsides in Luding county, kicking up clouds of dust as tremors swayed roadside telephone wires.

State media reported that several aftershocks were recorded in nearby areas. A smaller magnitude 4.6 tremor hit eastern Tibet less than an hour after the initial quake, according to the USGS.

Hundreds of rescue workers were dispatched to the epicentre, CCTV reported, alongside footage of firefighters in orange jumpsuits boarding trucks and navigating a highway littered with rocks and other debris.

The Sichuan seismological authority said more than 1,000 soldiers had been sent to help rescue workers.

Authorities also sent thousands of tents, blankets and foldable beds to the affected areas, according to the broadcaster.

Other state media photos showed officials in military fatigues heaving shovels and other equipment along a highway — all while wearing face masks as a Covid precaution.

President Xi Jinping called for local authorities to “make saving lives the first priority, go all out to rescue people in disaster-stricken areas, and minimise loss of life,” according to CCTV.

A resident of Chongqing said the quake was “pretty noticeable” and that it had shaken the lights and furniture in his fifth-floor apartment.

“I was pretty scared,” he told AFP, “but it didn’t seem to faze people here.”

– Summer of extremes –

Earthquakes are fairly common in China, especially in the country’s seismically active southwest.

A magnitude 8.0 quake in 2008 in Sichuan’s Wenchuan county left tens of thousands dead and caused enormous damage.

At least four people were killed and dozens more injured after two earthquakes in southwestern China in June.

That month a shallow 6.1-magnitude shock hit a sparsely populated area about 100 kilometres west of Chengdu.

It was followed three minutes later by a second quake of magnitude 4.5 in a nearby county, where the deaths and injuries occurred.

Authorities in Chengdu extended the city’s lockdown on Sunday as they fight a Covid flare-up with hundreds of cases.

The region has also suffered a summer of extreme weather, with a record-breaking heatwave noticeably drying rivers in Chongqing.

Engineers breached Pakistan’s biggest freshwater lake to drain water threatening nearby towns, officials said Monday, as heavy rain poured misery on millions affected by the country’s worst floods in history.

Nearly a third of Pakistan is under water — an area the size of the United Kingdom — following months of record monsoon rains that have killed 1,300 people and washed away homes, businesses, roads and bridges.

Officials say the repair bill will top $10 billion for a country already in the grip of economic crisis, with hundreds of thousands homeless as the monsoon draws to an end and winter approaches.

“There is nowhere to shower or go to the bathroom,” said Zebunnisa Bibi, sheltering near Fazilpur, in Punjab province, where 65 tents are now home to more than 500 people who fled their inundated villages for higher land. 

Similar tent camps have mushroomed across much of the south and west of Pakistan, where rain has nowhere to drain because rivers are already in full flow as a result of torrential downpours in the north.

Sindh province Information minister Sharjeel Inam Memon told AFP Monday that engineers had to cut a channel into Lake Manchar to drain water that was threatening the towns of Sehwan and Bhan Saeedabad, with a combined population of nearly half a million.

– Lake Manchar bigger than ever –

Still, thousands had to be evacuated from smaller settlements submerged by the newly directed channel.

“The flood water was diverted but the threat is still far from over,” Memon said.

“We are trying our best to stop the inundation of more villages.”

Lake Manchar, which lies west of the Indus River, varies in size according to the season and rainfall, but is currently spread over as wide an area as anyone can recall.

Much of Sindh and parts of Balochistan have become a vast landscape of water, with displaced locals huddled miserably on elevated roads, rail tracks and other high ground.

Human and animal waste in the fetid water attracts swarms of flies, while outbreaks of dengue are being reported from mosquitos breeding in the swamplands.

One pregnant woman at a camp in Punjab said she was desperate for medical attention for a baby due any day now.

The mother-of-five knows it could be a difficult birth, as the baby has not shifted from the breech position.

“I need a doctor or a midwife. What if something happens to my child?” said Fahmidah Bibi.

The United Nations Population Fund said at the weekend there were at least 128,000 pregnant women in flood-hit areas who urgently need care — with 42,000 expected to give birth in the next three months.

– Climate change blamed –

Pakistan receives heavy — often destructive — rains during its annual monsoon season, which are crucial for agriculture and water supplies.

But such intense downpours have not been seen for decades.

Pakistani officials blame climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world.

Pakistan is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but is eighth on a list compiled by the NGO Germanwatch of countries deemed most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change.

A massive army-led relief operation is in full swing, but the country’s leaders have admitted being overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis and appealed for international help.

The latest figures from the National Disaster Management Authority show nearly 6,000 kilometres (4,000 miles) of roads have been washed away, 246 bridges demolished, and 1.6 million homes either destroyed or badly damaged since June, when the monsoon started.