CCTV footage showing after the China Earthquake Administration activated the level-1 emergency response procedure on Tuesday, following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake which hit Jiuzhaigou County in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

via scmp.com – YouTube

BEIJING — The U.S. Geological Survey has a magnitude 6.5 earthquake has struck a remote area of far northwestern China, about seven hours after a similarly massive quake killed at least seven people in a different part of the country.

The most recent quake, initially gauged at magnitude 6.3, hit a sparsely populated area of the Xinjiang region near the Kazakhstan border on Wednesday morning.

Amateur footage captured of people fleeing as earthquake hits Jiuzhaigou County, Sichuan Province, in southwest China. Source: CCTV

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The first magnitude 6.5 quake struck a region bordered by the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu at a depth of just 9 kilometers (5.5 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones.

The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the earthquake at magnitude 7.0 and said it struck at a depth of 20 kilometers (12 miles). The quake occurred at about 9:20 p.m. near Jiuzhaigou, or Jiuzhai Valley, a national park known for spectacular waterfalls and karst formations, the Chinese agency said.

The area is located on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau in northern Sichuan province, home to many Tibetan and other ethnic minority villages.

A man surnamed Song who answered the phone at a local emergency office in Aba prefecture, where the Jiuzhaigou national park is located, said the nearby town of Zhangzha reported the deaths and injuries. Song did not say where the five tourists who died were from.

Earthquakes are common in China’s west, although the low population density there often means casualties are low. China’s deadliest earthquake this century, a magnitude 7.9 temblor with a depth of 19 kilometers (12 miles), struck Sichuan province in May 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people.

The epicenter in Tuesday’s quake was about 39 kilometers (24 miles) from the county of Jiuzhaigou, which has a population of around 80,000, in an area that’s 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) above sea level. It was 285 kilometers (177 miles) from Chengdu, the densely populated capital of Sichuan province, according to the Chinese center.

The official Xinhua News Agency said strong tremors could be felt in Chengdu. The Sichuan provincial government’s news website said that after the quake struck, a number of train services to Chengdu and other cities were suspended.

Jiuzhaigou county was suffering from a massive power outage following the quake … (read more)

via AP – abc7.com