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7.1-magnitude quake hits China's Qinghai Province
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-14 08:47
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 The map shows the location of the epicenter of the 7.1-magnitude quake in Qinghai Province early Wednesday. [chinanews.com.cn] |
BEIJING - A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit northwest China's Qinghai Province early on Wednesday, the China Earthquake Networks Center said.
There have been casualties and house collapses, said residents and witnesses near the epicenter in the Yushu County, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu.
"As far as I know, there have been human casualties," said Karsum Nyima, deputy director of the News Department of the Yushu TV.
"I saw the roof of a Buddhist pagoda in a park collapsed," he said.
But no official statistics have been released.
The quake struck the Yushu County at 7:49 a.m. with a depth of about 33 km. The epicenter is calculated to be 33.1 north and 96.7 east, the China Earthquake Networks Center reported.
Three aftershocks have been reported so far.
Earlier on 5:39 a.m., a 4.7-magnitude jolted the county with a depth of about 6 km, the center reported.
The epicenter is about 30 km away from the Jiegu Township, the government seat of the Yushu prefecture, and about 800 km away from Xining, the provincial capital.
"We are investigating the casualties and property losses," a spokesman with the Qinghai Provincial Emergency Office said.
Yushu is a sparsely-populated region, but experts said the quake is very likely to cause "heavy" casualties.
"The strong quake has a shallow depth and the epicenter is close to the county seat," said Sun Shihong, an expert with the China Earthquake Administration in Beijing.
"It is estimated there will be heavy casualties, as the quake occurred in the early morning and most of the local residents were yet to get up," he said.
"We do not know whether the previous 4.7-magnitude quake had alerted local residents," he said.
"A rescue team of the administration is ready to go to the quake-hit region," he added.
