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On This DayIn 1976, earthquake in China’s Tangshan kills over 240,000 people – SCMP archive
On this day 50 years ago, the deadliest earthquake in recorded history razed the mining town of Tangshan in China’s Hebei province
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SCMPPublished: 11:30am, 28 Jul 2026
This article was first published on July 29, 1976.
Quake rocks Northern China
by Staff Reporters
Heavy casualties and severe damage to industrial plants and property were feared when the strongest earthquake for 12 years struck the industrial belt of northern Hopei Province early yesterday (July 28, 1976) morning.
The tremor was followed by a series of aftershocks and 16 hours after the first quake, an aftershock of almost the same intensity struck the same area, causing further damage and casualties.
Confirmed dead was a Japanese businessman in Tangshan, which was close to the epicentre of the tremor, about 90 miles east-southeast of Peking. Six other Japanese were injured and were receiving treatment in a Peking hospital last night.
A Frenchwoman aged about 30 was reported by French sources in Peking to have been killed in the same city.
And the visiting former Australian Prime Minister, Mr Gough Whitlam, who spent a night in Tientsin, told reporters in Peking before flying to Japan last night that he had been told by his Chinese hosts that there were some dead in Tientsin.
There also appeared to be “an awful lot of damage” in that municipality, he added.
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