8 dead as quake hits county in Xinjiang
Print Edition
EIGHT people have died and 23 others were injured after a 5.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Taxkorgan County in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at 5:58am yesterday.
More than 12,000 people have been affected and 9,200 people have been relocated to safe places.
The injured have been sent to hospital for treatment after more than 1,000 soldiers and police officers, along with 1,500 civilians, rushed to the quake-stricken areas to help in the rescue. Relief goods are on their way, the emergency response headquarters said.
Wang Fuyou, the county’s Party chief, said the quake was followed by strong and frequent aftershocks.
Cracks appeared on walls of houses and some people were buried after adobe dwellings near the epicenter collapsed, he said.
The county government has sent personnel to search for the people missing in Quzgun, the worst-hit village.
The company supplying power to the county said its network was operating normally in quake-hit areas. Water supplies and communications were also unaffected.
As of 10am yesterday, the Xinjiang seismological bureau recorded 82 aftershocks.
The epicenter, at a depth of about 8 kilometers, was monitored at 37.58 degrees north and 75.25 degrees east in the southeast part of the Pamir Plateau.
Taxkorgan is some 1,250 kilometers from Urumqi, the regional capital, and borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
The area within a radius of about 200 kilometers from the epicenter has recorded 226 earthquakes above 3-magnitude over the past five years, including a 6.7-magnitude quake on November 25 last year.
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