SHANGHAI (REUTERS) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck Ya'an city in China's southwestern province of Sichuan on Saturday and was felt strongly by residents of the capital city of Chengdu, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The earthquake occurred at 8.02 a.m. local time (8.02am Singapore time) in Lushan county and the epicentre had a depth of 13 km.

A resident in Chengdu, 140km from Ya'an city, told Xinhua he was on the 13th floor of a building when he felt the quake. The building shook for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall from nearby buildings.

A strong earthquake struck Sichuan in 2008, killing nearly 70,000 people.