More than 155,000 homes in Gansu were either damaged or destroyed. The quake rocked Gansu's Jishishan county, at a depth of 10 km. The epicentre was 5 km from the provincial border straddling Gansu and Qinghai, where strong tremors were also felt.

Authorities have mobilised an array of emergency responses after the quake wrecked roads and infrastructure, triggered landslides, and half buried a village in silt. But rescue work has proved challenging in sub-zero temperatures, after a powerful cold snap swept across the country.