Lhasa [Tibet], January 10: Authorities moved more than 47,000 people to shelters in earthquake-hit Tibet, Chinese officials said, while rescuers widen a massive combing effort for survivors near the foothills of the Himalayas, despite slim survival odds.
It is not yet clear how many are still missing after Tuesday's quake of magnitude 6.8 killed 126 and injured 188, but more than 48 hours later, experts say those trapped under rubble are likely to have died of hypothermia.
Officials pledged to keep up their search for survivors, despite the dwindling odds in temperatures that dropped as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius (zero degrees Fahrenheit) by night.
China sent 11,000 rescuers to the quake zone within hours of the first tremors, which were followed by more than 1,200 aftershocks. A vice premier, Zhang Guoping, led the effort, going to the hardest-hit areas.
The epicentre of the quake, one of the region's strongest in years, was in the rural county of Tingri, with a population of about 60,000, located about 80 km (50 miles) north of Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak.
The quake, which shook buildings as far away as Nepal and India, reduced to rubble more than 3,600 homes in Tingri and damaged 27,000 more at an average elevation of more than 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), that presents a challenge for rescuers.
While authorities have not updated Tuesday's tally of dead and injured in state media, the official Xinhua news agency said rescuers focused on 27 villages home to 7,000 people spread 20 km (12 miles) around Tingri.
The quake followed a northward compression of the Indian tectonic plate, state media said on Thursday, citing the China Earthquake Networks Centre.
The plate, which collided with the Eurasian tectonic plate about 60 million years ago, continues to move 5 cm (1.97 inches) northeast each year.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
