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15 dead after strong quake jolts Sichuan

(Xinhua/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-08-30 21:56

PANZHIHUA, Sichuan -- 15 were killed and more than 100 injured  after an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit Panzhihua City in southwest China on Saturday.

Houses were seriously damaged in the quake zones, according to a latest China News Service report.

One person was killed in Miyi County and another was confirmed to have died when a house collapsed in Zhongchang Township of Lihui County, Sichuan Province.

Five people died in Chuxiong Autonomous Prefecture of Yi Ethnic Group in neighboring Yunnan Province, where 26 were injured, 11 severely, as of 8:30 p.m., said Mengfu, a prefecture government official.

The casualties in Yunnan were reported in Yongren, Yuanmou, Wuding and Dayao counties, in which four deaths were in Yuanmou and another in Yongren.

The quake struck at 4:30 p.m. (Beijing time). The epicenter was about 50 km southeast of downtown Panzhihua, at 26.2 degrees north and 101.9 degrees east and at a depth of 10 km, the National Seismograph Network Center said.

All the affected counties in Sichuan and Yunnan reported damaged houses.

No casualties or damaged houses were reported in the urban area of Panzhihua.

"Locals in the county rushed out into the open. Cracks appeared on house walls and many windows were broken," said Zheng Zhouwei, a local legislator in Yongren.

Yunan's capital, Kunming, about 300 km from the epicenter, and Sichuan's capital of Chengdu also felt the tremor. Many residents were staying outside after the quake.

Xinjiang Quake

And in Xinjiang, an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale hit Hejing county, Bayingolin Autonomous Prefecture of Mongolian Ethnic Group in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Saturday evening.

The quake struck a place at 42.7 degrees north latitude and 83.9 degrees east longitude at 8:46 p.m. (Beijing time). The depth of the epicenter is about 10 km, the National Seismograph Network Center said.

No casualties have been reported so far.