Earthquake in China’s Sichuan kills three, injures dozens


The quake struck Luxian county just after 4:30am local time, about 120km southwest of the sprawling megacity of Chongqing, which is home to some 30 million people.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) put the quake’s initial magnitude at 5.4, but the China Earthquake Networks Center measured a magnitude of 6. The state-run news agency Global Times reported that three people had been killed and 60 injured, three of them in critical condition.

Dozens of houses collapsed and many others were damaged in Luxian, while communication with thousands of people was disrupted, officials said. State footage from state broadcaster CCTV shows workers climbing stairs in the rain to remove dangerous debris from buildings, including half-broken glass pans.

Another Sichuan Daily video shows students emptying their dormitories in the dark, holding umbrellas and carrying bags. Authorities ruled out an immediate threat of a major aftershock.

“It is unlikely that there will be a major earthquake in the region in the near future, but aftershocks will continue for some time,” Du Bin, deputy chief of the Sichuan Earthquake Administration, told reporters.

The USGS said “significant damage is possible and the devastation is likely to be widespread.” The local government of Sichuan said in a Weibo social media post that several power lines had been cut off and 62,000 households had been affected by the power outage.

Traffic on the highways passing through the area has been diverted again to make way for emergency vehicles and avoid bad roads.

China is regularly hit by earthquakes, especially in its mountainous west and southwest.

A previous earthquake in 2008 killed at least 87,000 people when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook the region of Sichuan and killed at least 87,000 people including, thousands of children when poorly constructed school buildings collapsed.

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