Sichuan Ya'an Earthquake

7.0-magnitude earthquake hits south China's Sichuan
Magnitude: 7.0
Time: 8:02 a.m. Saturday Beijing Time, April 20, 2013
Location: Lushan county, Ya'an city, Sichuan Province
Epicenter: 30.3 degrees north latitude, 103.0 degrees east longitude

At 08:02 Beijing Time (00:02 UTC) on April 20th 2013, the Ya’an occurred a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, with an epicenter depth of 13 kilometers. Ya’an is located in Lushan County, Sichuan Province, about 116 km from Chengdu along the Longmenshan Fault, which the heavily impacted had impacted by 2008 Sichuan Wenchuan earthquake.



Effects

Based on the 08:00 AM News on 22th April (Beijing Time), the earthquake has resulted in 188 people dead, 25 missing, at least 11,826 injured with more than 968 seriously injured.
Several townships suffered major damage, and many old buildings in Lushan collapsed. The electricity service was interrupted, and the electricity grids in the counties of Baoxing, Lushan, and Tianquan disintegrated. Telecommunication was interrupted in part of Ya'an. The Chengdu–Ya'an and Ya'an–Xichang sections of the G5 Beijing–Kunming Expressway were reserved exclusively for vehicles for rescue purpose and closed to other vehicles.

Chengdu and other main cities around Ya’an had felt obvious vibration when the earthquake occurred. However, it did not bring casualties and houses collapsed. The State Seismological Bureau of China announced that it is safe in most parts of Suchuan, such as Chengdu, Leshan, Jiuzhaigou valley, and Chongqing.

Rescue efforts


About 8,000 Chinese soldiers were sent into to the stricken area in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, as well as 1,400 provincial rescue workers and 120 support vehicles. Also, 180 doctors from a Chinese emergency response team and search-and-rescue dogs were dispatched, with volunteers mobilized from other parts of the country.



Chinese Premier Li Keqiang toured the area and emphasized the need for quick action. Officials warned that regional rainfall and aftershocks were factors complicating the rescue efforts, with potential secondary effects like additional landslides and further building collapses being concerns. Impassible roads and damaged communications infrastructure posed substantial challenges to rescue efforts.