Sixteen people have been killed and 76 others injured following a 7.0-magnitude earthquake which struck Baqen County of Nagqu City in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region on Thursday, local authorities said on Friday.
The casualty figures were updated as of 13:00 on Friday, according to a press conference held by the information office of the Nagqu municipal government.
The press conference began with the attendees observing a moment of silence for those killed in the disaster, which struck at 22:33 Thursday Beijing time (14:33 GMT), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).
"As of 13:00 on Oct 23, 16 people have been killed and 76 injured; 339 houses have collapsed or sustained damage, and 20 livestock sheds have been damaged," Dondrup, deputy secretary of the Nagqu municipal Party committee and acting mayor said at the press conference.
More than 5,000 personnel have been deployed to the front lines of the disaster relief operation, working in teams responsible for search and rescue, medical treatment, temporary shelter and the provision of essential supplies, local officials said.
Rescue operations are in full swing, while an emergency command headquarters has been established on the front lines to coordinate relief efforts.
Local authorities have launched round-the-clock intensified monitoring of key sites, including mountainsides, reservoirs, power stations, rivers, structurally unsafe buildings and telecommunications base stations. Emergency repairs are also underway, with damaged telecommunications and power facilities gradually being restored.
Earthquake monitoring, meteorological and emergency management departments, meanwhile, are coordinating closely to issue timely warnings of aftershocks and adverse weather conditions.
The epicenter was monitored at 32.40 degrees north latitude and 93.79 degrees east longitude, according to CENC. The quake struck at a depth of 10 km. Tremors were also felt in other parts of Xizang, including Qamdo and Nyingchi.
16 dead, 76 injured in quake-stricken Nagqu: official
Iran has warned regional countries that any support for the United States in the event of a renewed armed conflict would be regarded as a hostile act toward Tehran, an Iranian official said on Friday.
Iran would be able to identify which regional states are prepared to back American forces if military action resumes, said Fada Hossein Maleki, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, speaking with Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
He added that in such a scenario, Iran could take actions beyond strikes on the military bases of those countries, and those countries themselves will be classified as hostile states.
Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on the same day that the United States has spent 11 billion U.S. dollars in taxpayers' money on missile defense for Israel within the past three years.
"It has fired more interceptors defending Israel than Israel has," Araghchi said. "That is not a symbiotic relationship. It is a parasitic one."
The U.S. and Israeli militaries have drawn up concrete plans to launch another military strike on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing U.S. officials and other informed sources.
However, it remains uncertain whether U.S. President Donald Trump will approve the plan.
A senior Iranian security official has warned that global energy markets will remain volatile "for the next three years" if the U.S. continues its current pressure campaign against Iran.
"Perpetuating the current situation will carry strategic consequences, not least that the energy markets will not find calm for the next three years," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said in an interview, published Thursday, with U.S.-based news outlet Drop Site News.
Rezaei said that if another war is imposed on Iran, Tehran still has the capacity to launch missiles and drones at various U.S. assets across the region and will expand its target list to include "cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities."
The official also said Gulf states "are rapidly redefining their relationship with Iran" as they realize that "the U.S. military is incapable of defending its own bases."
Iran warns regional countries against support for US in case of renewed armed conflict
