Death toll from earthquake in China rises over 75
A strong, shallow earthquake struck a dry, hilly farming area in western China early Monday, killing at least 75 people, injuring more than 400, and destroying thousands of homes, state media and the local government said.
NBC is reporting residents described shaking windows and swinging lights in communities where the quake hit near the city of Dingxi in Gansu province, a region of mountains, desert and pastureland about 1,230 kilometres west of Beijing.
Image/CIA
Tremors were felt in the provincial capital of Lanzhou 177 kilometres north, and as far away as Xi’an, 400 kilometres to the east.
“You could see the chandeliers wobble and the windows vibrating and making noise, but there aren’t any cracks in the walls. Shop assistants all poured out onto the streets when the shaking began,” said a front desk clerk at the Wuyang Hotel in the Zhang County seat about 40 kilometres from the epicentre.
The government’s earthquake monitoring centre said the initial quake at 7:45 a.m. local time was magnitude-6.6 and subsequent tremors included a magnitude-5.6.
The quake was shallow, which can be more destructive.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the magnitude of the initial quake as 5.9 and the depth at 10 kilometres.
Initial measurements of an earthquake can vary widely, especially if different monitoring equipment is used.
