At least 14 died, hundreds more were injured and thousands of houses collapsed when an earthquake measuring 5,7 on the Richter scale hit near a popular tourist spot in east China on Saturday, officials said.
The quake, which could be felt in big industrial cities hundreds of kilometres away, struck at 8.49am local time, according to the China National Seismic Observation Network.
Five hours later, state television reported that 14 were confirmed dead, while the ministry of civil affairs put out a statement saying more than 370 had been injured.
The epicentre was near the city of Jiujiang, home to 500 000 people and a scenic spot for centuries.
Thousands of rural homes were flattened in the temblor, one official said by telephone.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake occurred about 10km below the surface of the Earth.
That makes it a so-called ”shallow” earthquake, similar to the one that struck in Kashmir in early October, a category of tremor generally known to cause greater damage than deeper ones.
In the first hours after disaster struck, local officials struggled to assess the human toll exacted in their respective areas.
”Six people were killed in Jiujiang county,” a local official said by telephone. ”Another 247 were injured.”
An official in nearby Ruichang city said five people were killed there, while four were seriously injured and 35 slightly injured.
He said the two sets of casualty figures from Jiujiang county and Ruichang city did not overlap.
One fatality was recorded near the city of Wuxue, in neighbouring Hubei province, an official there said.
In and around Ruichang city, 420 000 people had left their homes, apparently fearing the morning’s earthquake might not be the last, according to the website of state news agency Xinhua.
A relatively powerful aftershock was felt at about 12.55 pm, the Sina.com website reported.
Shockwaves could be felt as far away as Wuhan, a large industrial city on the Yangtze River more than 100km away, Sina.com reported.
The website carried photos reportedly taken in Wuhan early on Saturday, showing cracked walls and toppled mannequins inside shops.
In the city of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, 300km away, the tremor could also be felt, according to the China News Service.
Gao Jianguo, a leading earthquake expert, was quoted on Sina.com as saying the affected area is not known as an active seismic area.
”The biggest earthquake in recent years in Jiangxi struck in 1987, measuring 5,5 on the Richter scale,” he was quoted as saying.
”This is the biggest earthquake since 1949” to hit the region. — Sapa-AFP