More Than 100 Killed in Earthquake in Northwest China
More than 100 people are dead and hundreds more injured after a shallow earthquake struck northwestern China’s Gansu province late Monday night, according to state media reports.
The quake was measured at a magnitude of 5.9 by the U.S. Geological Survey and struck just before midnight local time in Gansu’s Jishishan county, roughly 60 miles southwest of the city of Lanzhou.
China’s earthquake monitoring agency said the temblor measured 6.2 at a depth of 10 kilometers, or roughly 6 miles.
The quake killed at least 100 people in Gansu and an additional 11 in neighboring Qinghai province, state broadcaster China Central Television reported Tuesday morning. Water, electricity, transportation and communication systems have been damaged in some places, it said.
Qinghai military and police units have dispatched 800 personnel to the earthquake zone to respond to the disaster, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
The quake was followed by at least nine aftershocks, all at around the same depth, according to the China Earthquake Administration.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow as news develops.
Write to Josh Chin at [email protected]