BEIJING • Three people were killed and dozens injured when a shallow earthquake struck south-western China early yesterday morning, triggering the second-highest level of emergency response by rescuers in Sichuan province.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) put the magnitude of the quake at 5.4 but the China Earthquake Networks Centre measured it at magnitude 6.0. Both put it at a shallow depth of 10km.
The quake struck Luxian county, around 120km south-west of the sprawling mega city of Chongqing which, along with its surrounding area, is home to around 30 million people.
The Luxian authorities said the physical toll included 737 collapsed houses and 72 houses with serious damage. Also, 7,290 houses were damaged to some extent. Communications were disrupted for tens of thousands of people.
But the authorities downplayed the immediate threat of a larger aftershock.
"It is unlikely there will be a larger earthquake in the area in the near future, but aftershocks will continue for some time," Mr Du Bin, deputy chief of the Sichuan Earthquake Administration, said.
State broadcaster CGTN confirmed the death toll, sharing security camera footage showing TVs and refrigerators shaking on the walls of houses as the earthquake struck. Ornaments smashed onto floors and there were cracks running through buildings.
Bricks were strewn across roads and trees felled in some areas as firefighters clawed through the rubble of collapsed houses, the images showed.
Residents were urged to stay outside their homes, state media reported, although images showed there was little sense of wider panic by residents in an area of high seismic activity.
The USGS said that "significant damage is likely and the disaster is potentially widespread" in a preliminary assessment.
The Sichuan government said on Weibo that multiple power lines had been disrupted and 62,000 households were hit by power cuts after the earthquake.
More than 6,900 affected residents have been relocated, and over 10,000 people have been shifted to temporary shelters as at yesterday morning, according to the local government.
A powerful 7.9-magnitude quake in Sichuan province in 2008 left 87,000 people dead or missing.
Among them were thousands of children, killed when poorly constructed school buildings collapsed, but the government failed to release an exact number of the dead as the issue took on a political dimension.
Police also detained activists who attempted to count the number of children who had died and mark the buildings which collapsed amid suspicions of poor construction.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
