Looking for victims: Rescuers searching through a quake-hit area in Yamansu township. — AP
BEIJING: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck a sparsely populated part of China’s western Xinjiang region, injuring six people and damaging or collapsing more than 120 homes in freezing cold weather, authorities said.
The quake was the latest in a series of seismic events and natural disasters to hit the vast country’s western regions.
The quake rocked Uchturpan county in Aksu prefecture shortly after 2am, the China Earthquake Networks Center said. Around 200 rescuers were dispatched to the epicentre. The county is called Wushi in the Mandarin language spoken by most Chinese.
Of the six people hurt, two had serious injuries and four were minor.
In addition, 47 houses collapsed, 78 houses were damaged and some agricultural structures collapsed, the government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region posted on its official Weibo social media account.
The quake downed power lines but electricity was quickly restored, Aksu authorities reported. Mountainous Uchturpan county had around 233,000 people in 2022, according to Xinjiang authorities. — AP
