Three people were killed and five were injured in a strong 7,1-magnitude earthquake early this morning in the sparsely populated region of Xinjiang in western China, which damaged or collapsed more than 120 houses, authorities said.
The earthquake hit Usturpan County (in Chinese: Wuxi) with a population of 233.000, in Aksu Prefecture shortly after 2.00:XNUMX this morning, the China Earthquake Center announced.
Around 1.000 rescuers are searching for survivors and victims' bodies.
There is a lot of material damage, and thousands of evacuees have been given coats, tents and folding beds because it is quite cold, Xinhua reported.
Local authorities announced that power lines were also damaged, but that power was quickly restored.
Railway traffic was re-established after checking the tracks.
Several aftershocks were recorded, the strongest of which was magnitude 5,3.
The earlier balance was six injured people, and then it was stated that two had serious injuries.
According to the previous balance, 47 buildings were demolished, 78 were damaged and some agricultural buildings were demolished.
This was announced earlier by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region government on its Weibo account.
The mountainous district of Usturpan had about 233.000 inhabitants in 2022, according to Xinjiang authorities.
The railway office in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, said rail traffic was restored after 23 a.m. this morning after safety checks and confirmation that there were no problems on the tracks. A total of XNUMX trains did not run during the interruption.
The US Geological Survey stated that the magnitude of the earthquake was 7,0 and that it occurred in the seismically active Tian Shan mountain range. As stated by the American institute, the largest earthquake in that area in the last century was of magnitude 7,1 and occurred in 1978, about 200 kilometers from today's.
After the main earthquake, numerous aftershocks were recorded, the strongest of which was magnitude 5,3.
That rural area is mostly inhabited by Uighurs, a majority Muslim population of Turkish origin.
Temperatures below zero were recorded in the Ušturpan district at the time of the earthquake, and the Chinese Meteorological Service is predicting that this week it will drop to minus 18 degrees.
Bonus video:
