367 Tewas Akibat Gempa 6,3 Skala Richter di China
367 Killed as Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake Hits Southern China
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
Beijing (B2B) - Gempa berkekuatan 6,3 Skala Richter mengguncang Tiongkok barat daya Minggu, menewaskan sedikitnya 367 orang dan meninggalkan 1.881 terluka di daerah terpencil di Provinsi Yunnan, serta menyebabkan ribuan bangunan, termasuk sekolah, roboh.
Survei Geologi Amerika Serikat mengatakan, gempa tercatat di kedalaman kurang dari satu mil (1,6 km). Media pemerintah Tiongkok mengatakan gempa itu dirasakan paling kuat di Yunnan serta di Provinsi tetangga Guizhou dan Sichuan.
Kantor berita resmi Xinhua mengatakan, pusat gempa berada di Kota Longtoushan di kota pegunungan Ludian, Yunnan. Komunikasi telah terpengaruh berat dan para penyelamat telah mulai tiba di tempat kejadian, kata laporan itu.
Gambar-gambar yang diposting online oleh media pemerintah menunjukkan tentara mengusung orang-orang dan mobil-mobil rusak oleh bebatuan yang runtuh.
Banyak orang bergegas keluar dari bangunan ke jalan setelah guncangan gempa, listrik terputus dan setidaknya satu sekolah runtuh, Xinhua menambahkan, dengan lebih dari 12.000 rumah setelah itu roboh dan 30.000 mengalami kerusakan.
Penduduk Ludian, Ma Liya, mengatakan kepada Xinhua jalan-jalan seperti "medan perang setelah pemboman". Ludian adalah rumah bagi sekitar 265.900 orang, kata Xinhua menambahkan.
Pemerintah mengirimkan 2.000 tenda, 3.000 tempat tidur lipat, 3.000 selimut dan 3.000 mantel ke zona bencana, di mana hujan berat diperkirakan beberapa hari mendatang akan menambah penderitaan, kata laporan.
Ini adalah wilayah Tiongkok yang sering dilanda gempa, dengan satu pernah menewaskan lebih dari 1.400 orang di bagian yang sama dari Yunnan pada tahun 1974. Sebuah gempa di Sichuan pada tahun 2008 menewaskan hampir 70.000 orang.
Beijing - An earthquake in southern China’s Yunnan province toppled thousands of homes today, killing at least 367 people and injuring more than 1,800, Xinhua News Agency reported.
About 12,000 homes collapsed in Ludian, a county of about 429,000 people located 270 miles northeast of Yunnan’s capital, Kunming, Xinhua, China’s official news agency, said.
The magnitude-6.1 quake struck at 4:30 p.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. Its epicenter was in Longtoushan township, 14 miles southwest of the city of Zhaotong, the Ludian county seat. Xinhua said electricity and telecommunications were cut off in the county.
Ma Liya, a resident of Zhaotong, told Xinhua that the streets there were like a “battlefield after bombardment.” She said the quake was far worse than one that struck the area in 2012 and killed 81 people.
Relief efforts were under way, with more than 2,500 troops dispatched to the disaster region, Xinhua said. The Red Cross Society of China allocated quilts, jackets and tents for those made homeless by the quake. Red Cross branches in Hong Kong, Macau and neighboring Sichuan province sent relief supplies, too.
The mountainous region where the quake occurred is largely agricultural, with farming and mining the top industries, and is prone to earthquakes. Chinese government broadcaster CCTV said the quake was the strongest to hit Yunnan in 14 years.
In 1970, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Yunnan killed at least 15,000 people, and a magnitude-7.1 quake in the province killed more than 1,400 in 1974. In September 2012, 81 people died and 821 were injured in a series of quakes in the Yunnan region.
In May 2008, a powerful quake in Sichuan province left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.
