Strange phenomenon before earthquake kills 118 people in China

Two days before the 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck Jishishan, Gansu Province, many local residents captured images of a flock of black birds flying in strange circles .

Hundreds of birds perched on the power lines.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck Jishishan County, Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province, China at 11:59 p.m. on December 18. The epicenter was in Liugou Town. The earthquake killed at least 118 people in Gansu and 11 in Qinghai, damaging water, electricity, transportation, communications and other infrastructure.

According to local media, this is the deadliest earthquake to hit China in nearly a decade, since an earthquake in Yunnan province killed about 600 people in 2014.

It is worth mentioning that two days before the Gansu earthquake, some locals captured a scene of a large flock of black birds flying in the local sky. The images, taken in the evening, showed a large flock of black birds on the street , some flying in low circles, while the majority of the black birds were perched on the power lines.

This is a rare phenomenon, which rarely happens, so it has attracted everyone's attention.

Immediately after the Gansu earthquake, images of flocks of black birds were widely circulated. Many people believed that this was a sign of a natural disaster because throughout history, there has been a lot of evidence that animals sense natural disasters earlier than humans and show strange behavior from a few weeks to a few seconds before an earthquake.

In 1975, a similar phenomenon occurred in Haicheng City, Liaoning, China. Despite extremely low temperatures and frozen water, many snakes raced out of their hibernation in the weeks before a 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit Haicheng on February 4 of that year.

The reptile's unusual behavior, along with other incidents, convinced authorities to evacuate the city hours before the disaster struck.

Animals also behaved strangely before the historic 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the industrial city of Tangshan in China's Hebei Province on July 28, 1976. The disaster leveled almost the entire city and killed more than 700,000 people.

The scene of devastation in Tangshan after the July 1976 earthquake.

In the weeks leading up to the disaster, fresh fish were plentiful and cheap in Tangshan. Fishermen said they saw many types of fish floating on the surface before and after July 20, making them easy to catch.

Huo Thien Hoa, a resident of this city, recounted that on July 25, 1976, 3 days before the earthquake occurred, he heard a strange noise in the fish pond. He ran out to see and saw a school of fish jumping high above the water, some jumping straight up into the sky, spinning like a top.

That same day, Truong Ho Hieu, a sailor, heard a screeching sound around the boat, then a swarm of green dragonflies flew over and landed all over the boat. No matter how people tried to chase them away or catch them, they didn't budge.

The day before the earthquake, Mr. Truong Huu and many others in Binh Thon town, Thien An district, Duong Son saw a mother swallow carrying her baby swallows and flying away. Many people in the district also saw dragonflies and locusts flying in swarms that spread over a hundred meters.

On the same day, Mr. Wang Gaishan in Luannan County, Tangshan saw a group of rats in his garden running around in panic, many big rats carrying small rats running around frantically as if looking for shelter. At a cooperative warehouse near Tangshan, someone witnessed more than 300 rats coming out of their holes and gathering together.

At midnight on July 27, a few hours before the terrible earthquake, Mr. Vuong Tai in the suburbs of Tangshan City was surprised to see four ducks in front of his house stretching their necks and flapping their wings, following him around, using their beaks to pull on his pants as if they wanted to say something. Meanwhile, Mr. Truong Bao Quy in Loan Nam District could not sleep because the cat in the house was crying miserably, refusing to eat when fed, just meowing and running around.

That night, many people heard unusual barking of dogs, horses breaking their reins and running wildly onto the highway. And at 3:45 a.m. on July 28, 1976, an earthquake that was assessed to have "the destructive power equivalent to 400 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima" occurred.

According to The Washington Post, videos filmed in Türkiye show that before the earthquake that killed more than 7,800 people in Türkiye and Syria in the early morning of February 6, 2023, before dawn, many birds rushed out of their nests, flying around and making loud noises above the houses.

In 2016, about 15 minutes before a 5.8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Oklahoma (USA), people also witnessed thousands of birds flying wildly in the sky as if sensing something terrible was about to happen.