No casualties reported after 5.1-magnitude quake hits Tangshan

No casualties or damage were reported as of Sunday noon after a 5.1-magnitude earthquake hit Tangshan, North China's Hebei province, at 6:38 am, according to the nation's top emergency agency. The tremblor was felt by residents in neighboring Beijing and Tianjin.

Rescue teams are conducting a survey in the city's Guye district, site of the quake's epicenter at 39.78 degrees north latitude and 118.44 degrees east longitude, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Emergency Management.

The quake hit at a depth of 10 kilometers, the ministry said on Sunday. The district is about 170 km southeast of Beijing and about 130 km northeast of Tianjin.

There's no need for residents to be too worried about the earthquake this time, which was a normal process of energy being released in the quake zone, the Beijing News reported, citing an expert with the China Earthquake Networks Center.

Tangshan was destroyed by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 1976 that killed more than 240,000 residents and injured over 160,000, according to previous data from city government.

"There should be no serious damage caused by the quake this time and the possibility of Tangshan being hit by another quake higher than 5-magnitude is small," Sun Shihong was quoted as saying.

According to the center's reports, this is the strongest quake to have hit within 200 kilometers around the epicenter in the past five years, which had a total of 17 instances of quakes that measured above 3 magnitude during the period.

Following the morning quake, two aftershocks - 2.2 magnitude and 2.0 magnitude - hit the district at 7:02 am and 7:26 am, respectively, Hebei Daily reported.

According to Tangshan city's management bureau for emergency, no casualties or serious damage were found, except several old houses in the district had some cracks after the quake.

Residents remained calm and social order was normal, while transportation, communications, and electricity were in stable operation, the bureau added.

Railway authorities stopped the operation of trains that were scheduled to pass through the area and have conducted a thorough check on railway facilities and equipment, Hebei Daily reported. As of about 10 am on Sunday, suspended trains gradually resumed operation.

Yu Hongwei, a resident in the district, said in a social platform post that he was safe and experienced no disruptions in his life due to the quake.

Some citizens in neighboring cities, including Beijing, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao in Hebei, said they were awoken by shaking from the quake. Yin Yu, who lives in Beijing's Shunyi district, said she felt her bed shaking and started to wonder it might be an earthquake.

A warning was sent out before the quake by an earthquake warning network that was established by the Institute of Care-life, based in Southwest China's Sichuan province, and emergency management agencies, reported by Chinanews.com.

Residents in neighboring regions, including Beijing and Tianjin, received the warning about 30 seconds before the quake occurred from mobile phones or televisions that had been activated with functions for earthquake warnings.

The Ministry of Emergency Management has started a fourth level emergency response for coping with quake disasters, while the provincial government in Hebei has started a third-level response, with rescue teams and quake experts dispatched to the district.