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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Samuel Osborne

Sichuan earthquake: Magnitude 6.5 tremor strikes central China

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake has struck central China, the US Geological Survey reports.

The quake struck in a sparsely populated area 200km (120 miles) west-northwest of the city of Guangyuan at a depth of 10km (6 miles), the USGS said. It had earlier put the quake at magnitude 6.6 and 32 km deep.

Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones. 

The Sichuan earthquake administration said the epicentre of the tremor was in Ngawa prefecture, largely populated by ethnic Tibetans, many of whom are nomadic herders, but also close to the Jiuzhaigou nature reserve, a popular tourist destination.

The area is frequently struck by earthquakes.

Pictures on state media-run social media sites showed some damage in Jiuzhaigou, with tiles having fallen from buildings and people gathering outdoors.

State television cited a resident in a village near Jiuzhaigou as saying no buildings had collapsed where he was, but that there had been strong shaking and people had fled outdoors.

A police official told state television that there had been some panic among the tourists when the quake hit, but that there had so far been no reports of serious injuries or deaths.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted a Jiuzhaigou tourism official as saying that some houses had collapsed or cracked and authorities were organising evacuations.

Shaking was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu and as far away as Xian, home of the Terracotta Warriors, according to users of Chinese social media.

The China Earthquake Networks Center measured reported the quake at magnitude 7.0 and said it was 20km (12 miles) deep.

The Chinese agency said the quake occurred around 9:20pm near Jiuzhaigou, or Jiuzhai Valley, a national park known for spectacular waterfalls and karst formations. 

A quake in Sichuan in May 2008 killed almost 70,000 people.

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