On May 18th, a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck Sun Village Town in Liunan District of Liuzhou City, Guangxi, China. Several houses collapsed in the aftermath, trapping some residents. Liao Qingyong, who lived in a four-story residential building, along with his two brothers, managed to save their family of 11 people by self-rescue during the crisis before the house collapsed.
According to reports from The Paper, Liao Qingyong, one of the survivors, recalled, “When the earthquake struck, except for my second oldest brother, the rest of our family of 11 were all asleep.”
Liao Qingyong explained that he was awakened by the earthquake and quickly woke up his second oldest brother, alerting the rest of the family. They rushed to escape to the ground floor. Upon reaching the ground floor next to the main entrance, they discovered that the ground had sunk more than ten centimeters, making it impossible to push open the large iron door leading outside.
Liao Qingyong swiftly retrieved an axe from the house and used it to break down the door. After taking turns chopping with his older brothers, about 5 minutes later, they managed to create a gap in the door. The three brothers then used their hands to pry open the split iron sheet, creating a larger opening through which the family of 11 members could crawl out, ultimately escaping unharmed.
Once the family had evacuated, the house collapsed. The three brothers who took turns breaking down the door sustained injuries to their hands.
Liao Qingyong mentioned that their neighbor broke a window on the second floor to escape, and a 91-year-old elderly person on the first floor was rescued on the morning of the 18th after being trapped inside.
In the early hours of May 18th, Liunan District in Liuzhou, Guangxi was hit by another 5.2 magnitude earthquake. Official reports indicated that 3 people died, 4 were injured, and 58 houses were damaged (figures not final).
On the night of May 18th, Liunan District in Liuzhou, Guangxi experienced a second 5.2 magnitude earthquake, with residents reporting that the tremors were even stronger than the earlier one in the early morning.
Within a day, the villages around Sun Village Town in Liunan District also suffered two earthquakes of over magnitude 5, resulting in collapsed outer walls of houses, revealing interior furniture, and leaving floors and fences in rubble.
Some affected residents described the tremors as intense, prompting them to evacuate by car and seek temporary refuge in tent areas overnight.
According to data from the China Earthquake Networks Center, the two 5.2 magnitude earthquakes had their epicenters only 1 kilometer apart, with densely populated areas nearby. Within a 20-kilometer radius, around 2.45 million people could be monitored, and within a 100-kilometer range, the population increased to 6.8 million.