Multiple tremors felt in Western China
Representational image. Collected.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Xinghai County, a remote area in northwestern China's Qinghai Province. The earthquake was felt on Tuesday at 11:16 AM local time. Just 18 minutes later, a second earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 hit the same area. The China Earthquake Networks Center reported this information.
The agency further stated that several more tremors were felt in the region later in the afternoon. Among them, one earthquake had a magnitude of 5.0.
The depth of the earthquakes' origin was 10 kilometers. The epicenter was located in a sparsely populated highland area, approximately 244 kilometers away from Xining, the capital of Qinghai. The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that the tremors were clearly felt in Xining city as well.
No casualties have been reported so far. However, citing preliminary inspections by local authorities, Xinhua reported that some buildings and roads in at least seven surrounding villages have suffered varying degrees of damages.
Emergency rescue teams have already been dispatched toward the remote epicenter. According to state media reports, the earthquakes also triggered limited landslides on nearby mountain slopes.
